When I quit my job in banking and opened Cookin’ the Books café, little did I know that I’d discover I possessed a hidden talent for solving crimes. But after solving four separate murder cases with the Hobson Glen sheriff’s office, here I am, Tish Tarragon: restaurant owner, literary caterer, and paid consultant to the police.

My side career in detective work hasn’t always been easy. Last Christmas saw me undergoing surgery for gunshot wounds and I recently ended a relationship with Schuyler Thompson, our town’s newly elected mayor, because he disapproved of my sleuthing (and just about everything else I enjoyed that he felt might interfere with his political aspirations.)

However, I don’t mind being single again. I fixed up the café storage room and converted it into a comfortable office/sleep area while I rent the upstairs apartment to my best friend, Mary Jo, and her two teenage children as she goes through a difficult divorce. The single lifestyle gives me a chance to focus my energy on building and expanding both my business and menu. There are senior Sunday lunches to plan, a book inspired wedding and a Harry Potter themed Sweet Sixteen to arrange. And then there’s the new case I’m investigating with Sheriff Clemson Reade. . .

I had just finished catering the Junior League Women of Literature fundraising dinner at St. Jude’s Episcopal Church. The event was a resounding success, serving up Harriet the Spy’s tomato sandwiches, Sylvia Plath’s crab and avocado appetizers, platters of Calpurnia’s To Kill a Mockingbird fried chicken, and Nora Ephron’s key lime pie – all raising a sizeable amount of money for local children’s charities. Just as I was on my way to lock up the church hall for the night, I stumbled over what I thought was a root.

It wasn’t a root, but a dead body – and not just any dead body.

Retired Sheriff Gadsden Carney had been murdered and was lying upon the Honeycutt family plot. Six-year-old Daisy Honeycutt was killed twenty-five years ago in a case that rocked Hobson Glen and the nation. In addition to being one of Clemson Reade’s predecessors, Sheriff Carney was in charge of the Honeycutt investigation – and his murder looks suspiciously similar to young Daisy’s.

Carney’s family told Clemson and I that the retired lawman had been looking into the Honeycutt case again. Could his death be linked to Daisy’s murder all those years ago? And if so, how? Daisy’s mother confessed to the crime and died in prison. Any everyone knows that there are no such things as ghosts . . . or are there?

While Clemson and I dive into the past, Mary Jo, my baker, Celestine, and my other best friend, Julian, seem determined to push Clemson and I together. If only they’d understand that I’m perfectly happy the way I am.

Clemson is a good friend. He saved my life when I was shot and I enjoy working with him, and talking to him, and bouncing new menu ideas off of him, but there’s no way I’d want to risk what we have for a romance that might turn sour.

No, things are perfectly fine the way they are – I have my café, my refurbished office/bedroom, my new consulting business, my friends, and my cat. I’m absolutely, perfectly fine the way I am.

I couldn’t ask for anything more.

From Ladle to Grave, A Tish Tarragon Mystery #5
Genre: Cozy, Culinary
Release: December 2021
Purchase Link

Could a body found in a graveyard be linked to a tragic murder twenty-five years ago? Tish Tarragon is plunged into a new case when a fundraising dinner in the local church hall leads to a dark discovery.

Literary caterer Tish Tarragon’s ‘heroines of literature’ fundraising dinner at St. Jude’s Episcopal Church is a resounding success. But as Tish walks through the graveyard to lock up the church hall, she takes a tumble . . . over a dead body.

Retired Sheriff Gadsden Carney has been murdered. Not only that, he’s lying upon the Honeycutt family plot. Six-year-old Daisy Honeycutt was killed twenty-five years ago in a case that rocked Hobson Glen. Sheriff Carney was in charge of the investigation – and his murder looks suspiciously similar to young Daisy’s.

Tish and Sheriff Reade discover that Gadsden was looking into the Honeycutt case again. Could his death be linked to Daisy’s murder all those years ago? Her killer died behind bars. Or so everyone thought . . .

About the author
Author of the critically acclaimed Marjorie McClelland Mysteries, Amy Patricia Meade is a native of Long Island, New York, where she cut her teeth on classic films and books featuring Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown. After stints as an Operations Manager for a document imaging company and a freelance technical writer, Amy left the bright lights of New York City and headed north to pursue her creative writing career amid the idyllic beauty of Vermont’s Green Mountains. Now residing in New Hampshire, Amy spends her time writing mysteries with a humorous or historical bent. When not writing—which is rare these days—Amy enjoys traveling, testing out new recipes, and classic films.

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