Yo, Lucille Mazzarella here. That’s like mozzarella but with an “a.” Sheesh, you wouldn’t believe what’s been going on! I was doing the flowers over at St. Rocco’s where we go to church when my brother-in-law’s body falls out of the confessional! I almost had a heart attack. And now the police are trying to say my Frankie did it. No way. They were like brothers, those two. Then there’s our daughter Bernadette, but that’s a whole other story.

And Richie Sambucco is back in town. As a matter of fact, he’s the one investigating the murder. Back in tenth grade, the time Frankie and I broke up for two months, Richie and I…well never mind. That was a long time ago. So how come I get hot all over every time I see him? Must be one of them hot flashes I been having lately.

I need to do something to take my mind off all this stuff that’s happening. Fortunately it’s Sunday, and I’m having everyone over to dinner after Mass including my mother, my sister Angela, her husband and son Gabe, my best friend, Flo, her son Tony and of course Father Brennan. The only one who won’t be there is my Frankie, but I don’t want to talk about that right now. I’m still too upset.

I’m doing escarole soup followed by stuffed shells, and Flo is bringing some cannolis from that bakery over in Maplewood. I’m making plenty because cousin Louis and cousin Millie usually show up just as we all sit down. What am I going to do? I can’t say no. They’re Frankie’s father’s cousins. They’re family.

Sure it’s a lot of work every Sunday, but family is everything to me. Know what I mean?

You can read more about Lucille in Confession Is Murder, the first book in the new “Lucille” mystery series, published by Beyond the Page Publishing. Book is available at online booksellers.

Meet the author
Peg grew up in a New Jersey suburb about 25 miles outside of New York City. After college, she moved to the City where she managed an art gallery owned by the son of the artist Henri Matisse.

After her husband died, Peg remarried and her new husband took a job in Grand Rapids, Michigan where they now live (on exile from NJ as she likes to joke). Somehow, Peg managed to segue from the art world to marketing and is now the manager of marketing communications for a company that provides services to seniors.

She has two cozy mystery series out now from Berkley Prime Crime— the “Sweet Nothings Vintage Lingerie” series, written as Meg London, set in Paris, Tennessee and the “Gourmet De-Lite” series, under her own name, set in Connecticut. She will also be writing the “Cranberry Cove” mystery series which will debut in 2015. And she is working on the sequel to Confession Is Murder.

Peg has two daughters, a beautiful granddaughter, a cat named Frazzle and a Westhighland white terrier named Reg. You can read more at www.pegcochran.com.