I don’t like ghosts. I really don’t, and I don’t like spooky things either. Back in Scotland, where I grew up, every castle and old building claimed to be haunted. Not my cup of tea. Thankfully, I now live in the U.S. and up until two weeks ago I was working my dream job as a menu developer on one of America’s favorite cooking shows, Mary Stobart’s Memorable Meals. I loved creating wonderful, seasonal meals for the show. Every week I would also step in front of the cameras to demonstrate a dessert or dish I’d created for my segment, Bunny’s Culinary Corner. Bunny’s my nickname, and I embrace it.

I really enjoyed working for Mary Stobart, but in retrospect, I think I annoyed her. My segment was becoming popular, too popular for old Mary. I also made the mistake of shooting down her idea of “pumping up spooky” for children’s Halloween treats. Mary wanted ghouls, fake blood, and spiders on fairy cakes. I had suggested cute pumpkins instead. I stuck to my guns and passed on the assignment. Imagine my surprise when a week later I was pulled into Mary’s office and offered the opportunity of a lifetime. My own travel cooking show titled, Food & Sprits! I was to be the star of the show, handling the menu development and food presentation. I was told another person would be handling the “spirits”, which was fine by me. Cocktails are not my forte. I was so excited by the opportunity that I signed the contract, packed up my knives, and left the test kitchen.

My second mistake was trusting Mary. It’s true that I’m a chef on a traveling show that does highlight food. However, the “spirits” part of the show isn’t about mixed drinks at all. It’s about real spirits, as in ghosts. Ghosts! And I don’t like them. At all! To my great annoyance, my job is to travel to hunted locations where I create and cook a meal meant to entice the featured ghost to the table. From there my ghost-hunting cohosts, Brett Bloom, and psychic medium Gifford McGrady take over, conducting an interesting and highly entertaining ghost investigation. I say interesting, because hunky Brett Bloom (he’s very hunky!) is totally fascinated by ghosts and takes his job seriously. The entertaining bit is provided by Giff, who isn’t a psychic medium at all. He told me in confidence that he just plays one on the show, because he needed a job.

We’re now shooting our first episode in England at Bramsford Manor. According to Bramsford’s historian, Marcus Bean, a tragic death occurred at the manor in the seventeen-hundreds. It was said that a young bride proposed a playful game of hide-and-seek on her wedding night and disappeared, only to be found fifty years later by her broken-hearted groom who found her remains in an old chest in the attic. What a tragic tale! She is known as the Mistletoe Bride, and ever since arriving at Bramsford I’ve been feeling her emotions. I can’t explain it, but it’s highly disturbing. However, that’s not all. I keep seeing a white rabbit. I’m not sure if it’s real or just my imagination, but I see him now, and he’s leading me to the mistletoe chest where the poor bride’s body was found. I don’t know why I’m compelled to open it, but I am. This is my third mistake. Because inside the chest is the body of a man, and my boning knife appears to be the murder weapon. Curse the white rabbit!

A Fatal Feast At Bransford Manor, Food & Spirits Mystery Book 1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: August 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

From the author of the charming Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries, the first in a new set at a haunted English manor and featuring chef Bunny MacBride, whose big break on her first reality TV show may be cut short by an unscripted murder…

It isn’t how chef Bridget “Bunny” MacBride imagined her own cooking show unfolding. But, if preparing historic meals with a modern flair is what it takes to get her cooking on the air, she can deliver, even if her dinner guest is a ghost. That’s the premise of the new reality TV show Food & Spirits, where Chef Bunny teams up with ghost hunter Brett Bloom and psychic medium Giff McGrady to visit haunted locales around the world and tempt lingering spirits back to the table with a beloved meal. For their first episode, the Food & Spirits team sets off to investigate Bramsford Manor, a historic house turned famously haunted hotel, in picturesque Hampshire, England. The sprawling estate is said to be home to the Mistletoe Bride, a young woman who died in the 18th century, the victim of a tragic accident on her Christmas wedding night.

Disliking spooks but loving food, Bunny leaves the spectral search to the pros and focuses on the feast, creating a traditional English holiday wedding dinner, complete with a gorgeous prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, and rustic apple tarts. It’s a sumptuous meal she hopes will entice the ghostly Mistletoe Bride to take a seat and join them while the cameras roll. But Bunny’s task is made more difficult when someone steals a boning knife from her custom kit. Alas, when the blade finally turns up again—in the chest of an all-too-human dinner guest—Bunny’s woes only grow as she is named a lead suspect in the case! Now, with a haunted house full of living residents, staff, and crew, Bunny will need the help of Brett, Giff, and her clairvoyant Grandma Mac, to solve this murder before the manor gains another ghost!

About the author
Darci Hannah is the bestselling author of the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series, the Food & Spirits Mystery Series, the Very Cherry Mystery Series, and two works of historical fiction, The Exile of Sara Stevenson, and The Angel of Blythe Hall. Darci grew up in the Midwest and currently lives in a small town in Michigan with her husband and two dogs. Darci is a lifelong lover of the Great Lakes, a natural wonder that inspires many of her stories. Passionate about family, dogs, food, baking, history, books, lighthouses, laughter, good conversations, coffee, and the paranormal, Darci feels especially blessed to have found a way to combine her interests in the stories she writes. It brings her great joy to be able to share them with you.