Life for most people in Sugar Grove, NH is pretty slow paced and mine is no exception. On the average morning the most exciting thing I encounter is the special at my best friend Piper’s restaurant, The Stack Shack. The Stack was built back during the Depression and is shaped like an oversized stack of pancakes. As far as anyone has been able to figure out, it’s the only building like it in the world. Piper’s menu is just as much fun, offering a nice mix of traditional fare and quirky experiments.
In addition to being the best place in town to grab a cup of coffee The Stack is also the center of social life. Just about everyone you might want to run into stops by eventually and along with breakfast you’ll probably end up chatting with a neighbor or a long lost cousin. If you’re me. you’ll also end up fending off the amorous advances of the local taxidermist, Knowlton Pringle. Which just goes to show how good the food is at The Stack. If it’s worth putting up with Knowlton, it has to be something special.
Since I live on my family farm and work at our maple sugaring business, I set my own hours. Most of the time that’s a good thing. But when you work in your family business, the family knows all your business. They also know if you’re swamped with work or if you have time to help out with their projects. So I never can be quite sure what I’ll end up doing in the course of the day. I’m often the one who gets called to pick up my sister’s kids from the school nurse’s office or to dash out to the post office for a book of stamps.
In between errands I devote my energy to growing the Greener Pastures sugaring business. The production part of the business is seasonal but I keep busy year round. Our syruping operation exists to support environmental causes. One hundred percent of our post tax profits go to charities and initiatives like land trusts and cleaner energy innovations. I keep myself and the rest of the family informed about the causes we support by regularly visiting the projects in person. I also maintain the company website and write a monthly greener living newsletter for our customers.
But sometimes things take an unpredictable turn, like recently when a truckload of exotic animals were let loose and started running amok all over town. You couldn’t even attend church service without a camel popping up in the parking lot. I certainly didn’t expect to be helping a good-looking guy from the state’s Fish and Game department to round up the animal escapees.
Even when the town is overrun by exotic livestock, I still make it home to have dinner with my family. My grandmother is a great cook and I never miss one of her dinners if I can help it. Neither does anyone else in the family. My grandfather, mother, brother, sister and her kids all crowd around the old oak table in the farmhouse kitchen and prepare to tuck in. Grandma specializes in recipes that use our abundant maple syrup supply. And no matter what she serves for supper there’s no better way to end the day than with a bowl of ice cream with homemade maple caramel sauce poured on over the top. Sweet dreams!
You can read more about Dani in Drizzled with Death, the first book in the new “Sugar Grove” mystery series, published by Berkley Prime Crime.
Thanks to Penguin, I have one (1) copy of “DRIZZLED WITH DEATH” to give away. Leave a comment to be included in the giveaway. Contest ends October 3; US entries only per publisher’s request.
Meet the author
A nearly life-long resident of the Granite State, Jessie naturally adores black flies, 98% humidity and snow banks 
taller than the average grandmother. When not writing she combs the beach and throws parties. She delights in mentoring young writers at local schools. She lives with her dark and mysterious husband and exuberant children in a village so small many other New Hampshire residents have never heard of it. Her debut mystery, Live Free or Die, won the 2011 Daphne du Maurier Award for Mainstream Mystery.
Visit Jessie at her website or on Facebook.
Books are available at retail and online booksellers.
I always thought there could be a great mystery found in a sugar shack- especially with all those vats of sap in spring. Please put my name in the contest.
I love the idea of a vat drowning. Hmm, you’ve got my wheels whirling!
The book sounds good – too good in fact. You’ve left me hungry. Hope sales go well.
Thanks, Barb.I think the cover makes people feel a hankering for some pancakes!
It sounds wonderful. I can’t wait to read it.!
Thanks, Shawn! That’s music to a writer’s ears!
I love quirky family cozies and this one sounds like fun!
I hope you enjoy the Greene family as much as I do!
The book sounds great, I love small town life. Look forward to reading it
There’s just something so appealing about small town stories, isn’t there? I think of them as comfort food for readers.
Pancakes look yummy! Thanks for the giveaway opportunity. Looking forward to reading this book.
I’m so glad you find the pancakes appealing even with the poison! Thanks for commenting!
I love cozy books about food and NH having lived there for over 60 years.
How lovely to hear from a fellow Granite Stater! Isn’t the foliage getting to be just delightful?
I traveled through NH many years ago and enjoyed it. It’s such a different landscape than the southwest. I’ve been “hearing” (“seeing”?) some buzz about this author on FB and have been intending to add her to my TBR pile. Winning a real book would just be icing on the cake. Syrup on the pancakes?!
Hearing that you have already noticed buzz about Drizzled with Death is the syrup on my pancakes! Thanks so much for mentioning!
I can not wait to read this new series. I live in New England (Massachusetts) so I always love reading about this area.
I love hearing from fellow New Englanders! Thanks for commenting!
I love the sound of this mystery! Would love to win, but I’m buying it if I don’t !
You are so sweet! Thanks so much for your interest!
The Stack Shack and Dani are new to me, but look like a great story and setting! Thanks!
I hope you will enjoy both the Stack and Dani as much as I do! Thanks for stopping in!
This sounds great!
Thanks, Sarah; that is so lovely to hear!
This sounds very interesting.
Thanks, Nancy for your interest and for commenting today!
Definitely sounds fun. I’d love to win this.
Mark, I’m so glad you think so. I certainly had fun writing it!
I’d love to read this one. It made me a little sad for I’m a grandmother who doesn’t have her herd circle around the big oak table every night. And as good as that sounds, I don’t think I could cook all those meals! But it sure is nice to read about it. This book depicts the way life used to be. Jessie is an engaging writing with no doubt and engaging personality.
Aww, Dorothy, my heart just goes out to you! I hope you circle your own herd soon. But one thing is for sure, you can’t possibly envy the clean up duties at Greener Pastures!
The book sounds like a fun, interesting story…..the cover looks delicious….and Jessie has to be a great person to know!! 🙂
Linda, I love the cover too! Although, just looking at it makes me worry about gaining weight!
Eating at the Sugar Shack would probably put me into sugar shock. LOL But I do love Maple Syrup on my chocolate chip pancakes and French toast. Please enter me in the contest Dru…
Oooops I meant the Stack Shack… silly me sugar on the brain.
Sometimes I worry about sugar shock here in my home when I get my family to trial recipes for the books. So far they aren’t complaining though!
Love pancakes and real maple syrup—and I love quirky recipes and characters in stories—sounds like I had better read this book. Thanks for the contest.
suefarrell.farrell@gmail.com
Thanks, Sue for stopping by! I hope it is just your kind of quirky!
This sounds delightful. Wish grandmother would share her recipes using maple syrup. Oh the poor souls who think “maple flavored syrup” is the real thing. How sad is that?!
Libby, there are recipes in the book from Dani and from Piper at the Stack Shack. Grandma gets her turn to shine with recipes in book 2, Maple Mayhem, which will release in July, 2014. Grandma is famous for her version of the New England favorite, Anadama Bread. But at Greener Pastures they call it Grammadama Bread.
After a wonderful chat with you at Malice last spring I pre-ordered this book and Yipee it popped into my kindle this week. It sounds like such a fun read, I look forward to enjoying from the perspective of a NH native (who still lives in and loves my home state). Good luck!
How nice to hear from you once more! I am so please you are looking forward to it! Will you be at Malice next year? We could catch up then!
I would love to get my hands on this book! It sounds like a great book.
Thanks, Michelle for stopping in and for your interest in Drizzled!
Sounds like fun! Mystery with a drizzle–or a ladleful–of maple syrup–what could be better? 🙂
Lisa, that sounds like a fun tagline; Drizzled with Mystery or Ladle up a Great Mystery!
Love the cover! Sounds good. Please enter my name in the contest too. 🙂
Jenny, thanks for mentioning the cover. I really love it too!
You had me at “maple”, I love maple flavored anything. This sounds like a good read, adding it to my tbr list.
Debbie, I love hearing from maple lovers! Thanks for adding it to your tbr list!
Pancakes, pralines…maple syrup…yum. I want to get my sticky fingers on your book.
Barbara, sticky fingers! I love it! Thanks for making me laugh!
Sounds good enough to eat! Thanks for the chance.
Barbara, I am so glad you feel that way! Best of luck with the contest!
Can’t wait to read this one. Sounds great.
Thanks so much, Mary for dropping in and for your kind thoughts!
What a clever title!
Thanks, Lisa! I like it too! It combines two of my favorite things: fun and mystery!
Still chuckling over the title–can’t wait to read this one!
Stephanie, I so glad we share a sense of humor! Sometimes I wonder if I am only amusing myself!
What a great introduction to your book! I want it, I mean I want to read it!
Thanks so much, Elaine! I hope you get the chance to spend time with Drizzled with Death!
Jessie, we are practically neighbors; we live in MA. Well, you know what I mean– New Englanders . Can relate to huge mountains of snow and lots of ice for sure. I am always excited to find a new mystery author and if that mystery is a cozy mystery, that is even better. Looking forward to keeping up with what you are writing; would love to be included in your giveaway to sample the sap so to speak. I don’t use anything but pure maple syrup so I hope that gives me a little of a sticky edge. 🙂 Welcome to my favorite genre.
Cynthia, thanks for the warm welcome and kind words. I love hearing from fellow New Englanders!
This sounds delicious, thank you for the chance to win it.
wfnren(at)aol(dot)com
Thanks, Wendy, for stopping by. I’m glad it whetted your appetite!
LOVE culinary cozies! This one sounds like fun. Thanks for the giveaway! Fingers crossed 🙂
Stacie, I agree that culinary cozies are fun. Thanks for visiting Dru’s blog!
Thanks Jessie for giving us a glimpse into Dani’s day.
Dru, thanks so very much for having Dani and me!
Sounds like a great fun book!
contest is closed.