Oh, hi! Come on in. I’m Samantha Warren, but my friends call me Sam. Pardon the mess in here. My best friend, Marisa, loves to joke that my kitchen looks like a high school chemistry lab. Those jars? I’m making homemade bitters. That one’s my famous cherry vanilla bitters, and over here, I’m trying something with pineapple and sage. It smells spicy, doesn’t it? It should go great with gin.

Have a seat. Nudge Ruby out of the way and make yourself at home. I swear that cat thinks she’s a person. Anyway, I’ll whip us up some cocktails. I just need to add a little more wild cherry bark to this batch of bitters, and I’ll be done. I know this all seems a little strange, but my kitchen is my happy place, and these days I could use a dose of happy.

A few short months ago, I had happiness to spare. I had a great job covering crime at the Houston Gazette, a handsome fiancé with a promising law career, and even the down payment on the cutest little yellow bungalow on the edge of Houston’s historic Highlands neighborhood. But I guess it was too good to be true, because it didn’t take long for me to lose everything.

My job was the first to go. I was laid off along with a bunch of other reporters–fresh casualties of the latest newspaper downsizing. But I’d bounced back and was keeping busy with a few freelance assignments. Plus, I was in the midst of planning my wedding. With all of my newfound spare time, I had the brilliant idea of making hundreds of bottles of my cherry vanilla bitters as favors for our wedding guests. I bet you can guess what happened next. . .

Yep, my wedding was cancelled. My fiancé, Greg, had seemed perfect on paper with his freshly minted law degree and his future job as an assistant prosecutor. But a few short weeks before the wedding, Greg got cold feet and moved to New York, leaving me with a broken heart and hundreds of bottles of homemade bitters.

Don’t worry. Marisa cooked up an idea to break me out of my funk and use up the bitters. Her girlfriend, Beth, has connections with the Highlands Historic Association, and she scored an invitation for me to sell my bitters at the Highlands Historic Home Tour. It seemed like the perfect way to make lemonade (or at least a fancy cocktail) out of the bitter lemons I’d been served.

How do you like that cocktail? There’s just a dash of bitters, but even a drop or two adds to the flavor profile. Anyway, the party was beautiful, and at first it seemed like a success. I received rave reviews and guests bought up nearly all of my bitters. But then a board member died after drinking one of my cocktails. Now, on top of all of my other worries, I’m tangled up in a murder investigation. I’m a little worried, to be honest. If I don’t figure out something soon it could be last call for me!

A Dash of Death, A Cocktails and Catering Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: February 2022
Purchase Link

A Houston reporter-turned-mixologist mixes it up with murder in this series debut from Michelle Hillen Klump, superbly catering to fans of Diane Mott Davidson and Lee Hollis.

Bad news for Samantha Warren: The plucky Houston, Texas, reporter lost her job and her fiancé in rapid succession. But Sam has a way of making lemonade out of the bitterest of lemons. At a meeting of the local historical-homes council, she serves up the homemade bitters that she made as gifts for her wedding party. She intends to use that as her “in” to become an in-demand party mixologist. But the party’s over for one of the council members, who keels over dead soon after he sips the bereft bride’s bitter brew.

It turns out that the victim, Mark, was poisoned—his drink spiked with oleander. Since Sam mixed the drink that Mark imbibed right before his demise, she finds herself at the front of the suspect line. Now, she’ll have to use all of her reporter’s wisdom and wiles to clear her name.

Who could have wanted Mark dead? His wife, Gabby? His girlfriend, Darcy? Someone who wanted his seat on the council? Or another citizen of this sweet Texas town that holds some seedy secrets?

Job hunting, building her mixology business, and fending off late-night phone calls from her nearly betrothed don’t leave much time for sleuthing. But if Sam can’t “pour” over the clues to find the killer, it may soon be last call for her.

Meet the author
Michelle Hillen Klump is a former newspaper reporter who covered government, courts and crime throughout Arkansas and Central Texas. Still a working journalist, she is also a member of Sisters in Crime. Her short fiction has appeared in Crimson Streets and Tales of Texas, volume 2, a Houston short story anthology. Her debut cozy mystery, A Dash of Death, is available from Crooked Lane in bookstores on 2/8/2022.

All comments are welcomed.