Word to the Wise

by Jenn McKinlay

  “This is glorious,” Charlene said as she joined them. “If we’re voting on it, I vote yes.” She kissed her mother’s cheek as she slid onto the seat beside her.

  Lindsey said, “We need to table that vote until we decide which of these should be my wedding cake.”

  “While I am always happy to partake of cake,” Paula said, “I think it’s a very personal decision for your wedding. Maybe instead of voting, we can just help you suss out which is your favorite.”

  “That would work, too,” Lindsey said. “But I’m at critical. The wedding is a few months away, and I have to start making some decisions or this is going to be the worst wedding in the history of weddings.”

  “No, it’s not,” Beth said. “All of the extras don’t matter so long as at the end of the day, you and Sully are married and starting a new life together. Cake, dresses, dinner, flowers—all of that is just the cherry on top.”

  Lindsey blinked at her. “I don’t want cherries on my wedding cake.”

  Beth dropped her head to her chest in feigned exasperation, and they both laughed.

  “Seriously, if you ladies don’t help me, there might not be any cake or flowers or music or . . .”

  “All right, don’t panic,” Violet said. “I’m sure we can at least nail down the cake today.”

  “Thank you,” Lindsey said. “Ms. Cole came up with a system. There are five cakes, so everyone tries a piece, a bite, or a nibble and then ranks them from one to five, with one being your first choice and five being your last. The cake with the lowest number will be my wedding cake.”

  “That’s an excellent system,” Nancy said. She glanced at Ms. Cole, who was standing off to the side. She stabbed a piece of the chocolate cake with her fork. “Very clever.”

  “Thank you,” Ms. Cole said. “I’m working on my problem-solving skills to help with my run for mayor.”

  The cake fell out of Nancy’s open mouth and landed on the table with a splat.

  “Mayor?” Violet slowly turned away from the cakes and stared at Ms. Cole.

  “I’m making a run,” Ms. Cole said. She forced a smile that was more teeth than anything. “I hope I can count on your vote.”

  Violet drew herself up and looked Ms. Cole over from head to toe. She considered her from every angle and then gave a decisive nod. “Yes, you can, and I think I can help you present yourself in the best possible light.”

  “Mayor?” Nancy said again, looking as if she was still wrapping her head around the idea.

  Beth put her arm around Nancy’s shoulders. “I know. It takes a while. You’ll get there.”

  “If anyone cares,” Mary said, “I actually read this week’s book, Gaudy Night, and I loved it. I don’t care what the critics say—I really like Harriet Vane, and I don’t think she detracts from the prior Lord Peter Wimsey books at all.”

  “She is a terrific character, especially when you consider the mystery was written in nineteen thirty-five and Harriet is described as struggling between her love of academia and her love for Wimsey. Did you know Gaudy Night is considered the first feminist mystery novel?” Lindsey asked.

  “And the book nerd has arrived,” Beth said. “All is right in our world again.” Paula snickered, and they helped themselves to some cake.

  “I love Sayers’s entire series, especially when she describes the motorbikes,” Charlene said. “Did you know she was a motorbike rider herself?”

  “I did not,” Violet said. “That seems like something I should know.”

  “The golden age of mystery writing, in between the wars in Britain, is captured so well by her,” Paula said. “The plots are so very intricate.”

  Ms. Cole passed out the cake-rating cards, and Lindsey made sure everyone had a plate, a fork and a pen. She’d brought Greek salad skewers and a charcuterie board to balance out the sweetness of the taste testing, as well as a big jug of unsweetened iced tea.

  “Speaking of intricate plots,” Charlene said. “What is happening with Ava Klausner, a.k.a. Sylvia Grady? Last night was the first time the Grady murder wasn’t on the news in days.”

  “She was arrested for murdering her husband,” Lindsey said. “The car that I stole when I ran from her house was taken by the crime lab, and they found trace amounts of blood in the trunk that matched Aaron Grady. It’s believed that she shot Grady in the shed behind their home and then loaded up his body and drove him into town, where she left him and the gun behind the library to make it appear that either I or Sully had shot him.”

  “But what about the footage of Grady stealing the gun from Sully’s office?” Mary asked. “Do we know why Grady did that?”

  Lindsey frowned. She took a bite of the angel food with strawberry filling, which also had a lovely whipped cream frosting, and marked it down as number two on her note card.

  “According to Sylvia, Grady was planning to kill Sully with his own gun and make it look like a suicide, thinking that in her grief, Lindsey would turn to him for comfort, and then he would get rid of Sylvia—rather, Ava—and they’d live happily ever after,” Beth said.

  “But what about Chloe, the woman from the newspaper that he was stalking?” Paula asked. “I mean, it can’t have been a coincidence that Grady ended up in the same area as the woman he’d been obsessed with, right?”

  “It wasn’t,” Lindsey said. “But in a weird twist, worthy of Sayers, it was Ava who decided to move near Chloe. Grady had no idea.”

  “Why would she do that?” Violet asked. “You’d think she’d want to be as far away from the other woman as possible.”

  “From what Ava told me when she was chasing me through their rose garden, her plan had been to move close to Chloe and kill her so that Grady would know she was dead and he’d get over his obsession.”

  “That is stone cold,” Paula said. “And completely insane.”

  “Which is an excellent description of Ava,” Lindsey said.

  “What about his actual wife?” Nancy asked. “I mean, I heard that Ava said Grady killed her and she decided to take on her identity and assume her life, but how do they know if he did it or not? It could have been Ava who killed the real Sylvia.”

  “They’ve sent a forensics team to the former Grady residence in Tollenton, Massachusetts,” Lindsey said. “According to Ava, they buried Sylvia’s body in the woods surrounding the house. They’re hoping to recover the body and be able to determine how she died. It may or may not prove Ava’s story, but either way she will stand trial for killing her husband.”

  Lindsey supposed she should have felt badly about Grady’s murder, but she didn’t. She figured it was a lot like that line from Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird: “If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” She could not remember Grady as anything other than the scary, horrible person he was, and she wasn’t going to beat herself up about it.

  “Let’s talk about something happy,” Paula said. “All this murder stuff is making me glum. What else is left for you to decide for your wedding?”

  “Not much, actually,” she said. “Sully is in charge of music, our moms are taking on the decorations, Mary and Ian are in charge of the food, I have my dress, and Sully and I have planned our honeymoon. Oh, and Steve Briggs has agreed to officiate the ceremony.”

  “So that leaves just the flowers,” Charlene said. “It’s a Christmas wedding, so what are you thinking?”

  In truth, Lindsey had no idea. She hadn’t really thought about it yet. “I only know one thing for sure,” she said. “I’ll carry anything but roses.”

  The group looked at her in complete understanding.

  “How about forget-me-nots?”

  Lindsey turned to face the door, and there was Sully. He was standing there, with his broad shoulders almost filling the narrow space, holding a vase that was overflowing with flowers—white hydrangeas
with blue forget-me-nots. It was perfect.

  As one, the entire crafternoon group let out a big feminine sigh of appreciation. Lindsey grinned at him and left the table to join him by the door.

  She glanced down at the flowers. Simple, elegant, lovely, they were as untamed and wild as her sailor boy but also as serene as her librarian self. If ever two flowers represented two people perfectly, these were them.

  “They’re beautiful,” she sighed. “What made you bring them?”

  “I wanted you to have a better memory of a guy bringing you a vase of flowers than the one you currently have,” he said. “I saw these in Kelsey Kincaid’s shop, and I thought they’d do the trick.”

  “Best groom ever.” Lindsey grinned up at him.

  Sully smiled and his eyes crinkled in the corners. “This is nothing—wait until you see my husband game.”

  “It gets better than this?” she asked.

  “Way better.”

  “Remind me—why aren’t we eloping?” she asked.

  “Because we are going to savor this,” he said. “We’ve got a Christmas wedding and fabulous river-cruise honeymoon in our very near future. Nothing’s going to stop us now.”

  Then he kissed her, and Lindsey knew he was right. They were finally getting married. What could possibly go wrong?

  The Briar Creek Library Guide to Crafternoons

  What is a crafternoon? It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A gathering in the afternoon where participants get together to discuss a book they’ve read while enjoying a meal and doing a craft. Here are some suggestions to get you started.

  Readers Guide for Gaudy Night

  by Dorothy L. Sayers

  What is the role of academia in the novel?

  Is Harriet’s dilemma, her struggle between becoming a wife or remaining an academic, authentic? If so, why?

  Gaudy Night is considered the first feminist mystery novel. Do you believe it is or not? Why or why not?

  Sayers’s protagonist, Lord Peter Wimsey, is of the nobility. How does this work for him as an amateur sleuth? Does it work against him at all?

  What do you think Sayers was trying to say by choosing that particular person as the killer? Does the killer’s reasoning seem plausible to you?

  Craft: Tin Can Lantern

  Tin can (empty coffee can or soup can with labels removed)

  Hammer

  Awl

  Towel

  Fill the empty can with water and freeze overnight. Spread a towel to work on. Using a hammer, tap the handle of the awl until it punctures the can. Make as many holes as you want, in a pattern or randomly. Once the ice melts, wash the can and let it dry. Once it’s dry, it can be painted on the outside. When ready to use, put sand in the bottom of the can and light a small votive candle to place in the sand.

  Recipes

  CHARCUTERIE BOARD

  An easy option for all sorts of gatherings, especially book clubs.

  Using a large cutting board, arrange a wide variety of meats and cheeses and other delicacies on the board.

  Meats (all sliced):

  Prosciutto

  Soppressata

  Salami

  Pepperoni

  Dry sausage

  Cheeses (include a cheese knife):

  Gorgonzola

  Brie

  Mozzarella

  Gouda

  Havarti

  Olives:

  Green olives stuffed with garlic or jalapeño

  Kalamata olives

  Black olives

  Dried fruit:

  Apricots

  Dates

  Nuts:

  Pistachios

  Cashews

  Almonds

  Spreads:

  Horseradish

  Mustard

  Fig jelly

  Mini sweet gherkin pickles

  Lastly, add a variety of breadsticks and crackers.

  GREEK SALAD SKEWERS

  1 big block of feta (about 12 oz.), cut into 12 cubes

  1 bottle Greek salad dressing

  12 pitted Kalamata olives

  12 cherry tomatoes

  1 cucumber, cut into 12 large cubes

  12 6-inch wooden skewers

  Flaky sea salt

  Freshly ground black pepper

  Fresh dill

  Marinate the feta cubes in the Greek dressing. Take a skewer and slide on a cube of cheese, a Kalamata olive, a cherry tomato and a cucumber cube. Make 12 skewers. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and dill to taste. Offer extra salad dressing on the side.

  WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH RASPBERRY FILLING

  (Lindsey’s future wedding cake but also a fun cake to make for any occasion)

  3 cups all-purpose flour

  1 tablespoon baking powder

  ½ teaspoon salt

  4 oz. white chocolate, chopped

  1 cup butter, softened

  1¼ cups sugar

  4 large eggs, room temperature

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1¼ cups milk

  Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour two round 9-inch cake pans. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a small, microwave-safe bowl, melt the chopped white chocolate by heating it in 30-second intervals in the microwave. Stir well with a fork between each interval. The chocolate is ready when it’s smooth when stirred.

  In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by melted white chocolate and vanilla extract. Alternately add the milk and the flour mixture. Divide batter evenly into prepared cake pans.

  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Let cool for 10 minutes, and then transfer the cakes to cooling racks to cool completely.

  RASPBERRY SYRUP

  7 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen (thaw slightly)

  ¾ cup lemon juice

  1¾ cups sugar

  2¼ cups water

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  Combine raspberries, lemon juice, sugar and water in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook until raspberries are soft, about 15 minutes.

  Strain raspberry mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, using the back of a spoon to press down to get all the juice through the sieve. Discard raspberry seeds, and pour extracted juices into pan. Simmer over medium-low heat until reduced by half or to the consistency of syrup, 20 to 25 minutes; add vanilla extract at the end of cooking time.

  WHITE CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

  8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

  ½ cup butter, room temperature

  2 oz. white chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  3 tablespoons milk or cream

  4–6 cups confectioners’ sugar

  White chocolate shavings

  1 cup fresh raspberries for garnish

  In a large mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese, butter and melted white chocolate. Beat in vanilla and milk, then add in the confectioners’ sugar gradually until the frosting reaches your desired consistency. Put 1 cup of frosting in a small bowl, and blend 1 tablespoon of the cooled raspberry syrup for the filling. Add more sugar if needed to reach desired consistency. Spread on top of the bottom layer of the cake. Carefully set the second layer of cake on top. Using a spatula, spread frosting all around the sides of the cake and along the top. The frosting should be a bit stiff to allow piping along the outer edge of the cake. Once the cake is completely frosted, transfer the remaining frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip, and pipe a circle on the outer edge. Fill the circle with 1 cup fresh raspberries
and white chocolate shavings. Drizzle the entire cake with the remaining raspberry syrup.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Jenn McKinlay’s newest romance . . .

  THE CHRISTMAS KEEPER

  Coming October 2019 in paperback from Jove!

  She had never believed in love. Maybe for others, but not for her. But then he smiled at her and it was as if she’d found a piece of herself that she didn’t know was missing. When he took her in his arms and held her close, she knew that for the first time in her life, she was home.

  * * *

  Savannah Wilson closed the book and sighed. No one, but no one, wrote a love story that hit her in all the feels like Destiny Swann did. The woman plucked her heartstrings like a virtuoso playing a sonata.

  “Savy, come on,” Maisy Kelly said as she entered the room. She slapped Savannah’s feet off the coffee table, grabbed her arm, and hauled her up to stand, which was no small feat given that Maisy was the short side of petite and Savannah was more Amazonian in height and build.

  “I’m reading,” Savannah said. She held up her book. “Isn’t that sacred time? You own a bookstore; I would think you of all people would respect that.”

  Maisy glanced at the book. Then she crossed her hands over her heart and said, “Oh, Her One and Only, that’s one of my favorite Destiny Swann books. I totally get it, I do, but you’re my sous chef, and I need you in the kitchen. Besides, you shouldn’t be hiding in the parlor when we have a house full of people coming for Thanksgiving dinner.”

  “I’m not hiding. I’m just not very good company right now,” Savannah said. She tossed the book onto the coffee table.