I was honored when my best friend, Lilly Carlsen, asked me to write this post. She’s the one who solves the mysteries here in Juniper Junction, but she knows I’ve been having a rough time of it lately. I think she asked me to write about a day in my life because she thought it would give me something to do.

See, the thing is, I’m in jail. My social calendar, as you can imagine, is pretty empty these days.

What am I in for, you ask? In a word, murder. A woman died at a Fourth of July celebration I was catering and because I prepared and served her the food that killed her, I’m the one who looks guilty. She and her husband were new in town and they tried to hone in on my catering gig, so the police think that’s the reason I got rid of her.

But I didn’t do it.

I’m not a killer. I’m a cook. (My boyfriend Bill has said my cooking is to die for, but under the circumstances that’s probably inappropriate to be telling you.) I’m actually a recipe developer for a national cooking magazine, but I also write a syndicated cooking column and I do some catering, too. In fact, the July Fourth event was my first attempt at a big catering job. I think it went pretty well. . .at least until that woman died. Sure, I was overtired and nervous about the whole thing, but with the help of the culinary students at the local community college, I was able to pull it off.

It was actually pretty cool—I did a red, white, and blue backyard barbeque theme. Think pulled pork with your choice of a red sauce or a white sauce, green salad with blueberries and goat cheese, watermelon pops, dried cherry and white chocolate chip cookies. You get the point. It was a lot of fun coming up with the menu. Maybe I’ll put the recipes in a cookbook someday. . .if I ever get out of jail.

Lilly has been in almost every day to see me, and her kids have come to visit a couple times, too. They’re sweet kids. Tighe just graduated from high school and Laurel will be a high school senior in the fall. Bill hasn’t been able to come in to see me because he’s a member of the police force in Juniper Junction and he would probably lose his job if he fraternized with a murder suspect. But luckily, he’s also Lilly’s brother, so she keeps us both posted. She doesn’t want Bill to know she’s trying to find the murderer on her own, but at some point she’s going to have to ask for his help. She’ll need information that only the police have.

Specifically, she’ll need to know what certain people have told the police. There’s one woman in town who hates me, and she tops my list of possible killers. Lilly has talked to her, and she finds the woman as unbearable as I do. We’ll see what happens.

But whatever does happen, I hope it’s soon. I want to get back to my life: back to Bill, back to Lilly and my other friends, back to cooking again. Keep your fingers crossed!

You can read more about Noley in Dead, White, and Blue, the second book in the “Juniper Junction Holiday” traditional mystery series, released June 18, 2019.

Summer is getting hotter in Juniper Junction, Colorado.

There’s a firebug on the loose, the townspeople are nervous, and Lilly Carlsen, single mom to two teenagers, has even more to worry about. She’s in charge of the Independence Day celebration, her mother’s mental health is declining, and her son is getting ready to leave for college.

But things are about to get even hotter: when a bistro owner dies at the celebration and Lilly’s best friend is charged with murder, events start hitting close to home. It’s up to Lilly to help clear her friend’s name while at the same time dealing her mom’s worsening forgetfulness as well as a coming-of-age issue under her own roof.

Purchase Link
# # # # # # # # # # #

About the author
Amy M. Reade is a recovering attorney who discovered, quite by accident, a passion for fiction writing. She has penned nine mysteries and is working on two more, plus a Cape May County historical mystery series. She writes in the Gothic, traditional, contemporary, and cozy mystery subgenres and looks forward to continuing the two series she has begun since December, 2018. She also loves to read, cook, and travel.

She is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Secrets of Hallstead House, The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor, House of the Hanging Jade, the Malice series, the Juniper Junction Holiday Mystery series, and the Libraries of the World Mystery series.

To learn more about Amy, visit her website at amymreade.com.

All comments are welcomed.