by Joanne Fluke
There was silence around the table. Delores had been seen with three eligible men in the past week. Was she going to go to Rome with Joe Dietz? Bud Hauge? Doc Knight? It was clear no one wanted to ask her.
Hannah knew she was stuck with that unenviable duty when everyone turned to look at her. “Okay. I’ll ask. Who’s us, Mother?”
Delores nodded at Tracey, and Tracey jumped up from her seat. “It’s me! I’m going to fly to Rome with Grandma. Isn’t that exciting?”
The waitress arrived right on cue with two chilled bottles in an ice bucket. There was champagne for those who wished to imbibe, and sparkling apple juice for those who didn’t. As the glasses were filled with one or the other, the conversation turned to Rome and what Tracey could expect to see there. They were just talking about the famous fountain when Norman walked into the dining room with an attractive dark-haired woman on his arm.
“That’s his friend from dental school?” Mike asked.
“He didn’t tell me she was a woman,” Andrea said, looking over at Hannah apologetically.
Hannah knew what to do. She pasted a perfectly composed, perfectly polite smile on her face. Maintaining her composure shouldn’t be that difficult for someone who’d just been locked in a mausoleum and almost starved to death. But it was that difficult. She wasn’t sure exactly where her heart was located in her chest, but she knew it hurt a lot.
“Hi, everyone,” Norman said, stepping forward to greet them. “I’d like you all to meet my new partner at Rhodes Dental Clinic, Doctor Beverly Thorndike.”
GOOD DOGGY CAKE
Preheat oven to 350 F., rack in the middle position.
½ pound lean ground beef
½ pound ground chicken
½ pound ground turkey
8-ounce package cream cheese
4-ounce package liverwurst
You will need 3 pie plates, or 3 layer cake pans to make this cake. (I used disposable pie pans.)
Spray the 3 pans with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.
Press the half-pound of lean ground beef into the bottom of the first pan, spreading it out evenly.
Press the half-pound of ground chicken into the bottom of the second pan, spreading it out evenly.
Press the half-pound of ground turkey into the bottom of the third pan, spreading it out evenly.
Bake the ground meat in the 3 pans at 350 degrees F. for 25 to 30 minutes.
Use a turkey baster to suck out the grease and dispose of it. Let the meat cool completely in the pans.
When the meat is cool, it’s time to make the frosting. Place the cream cheese and the liverwurst in a medium-sized, microwave-safe bowl. Heat them together on HIGH for 30 seconds.
Stir the cream cheese and the liverwurst together into a paste. If it’s still too solid to stir, give it another 20 seconds on HIGH in the microwave.
Take one disk of meat out of its pan and place it on a cake plate. Spread a little of the frosting on top.
Take another disk of meat, put it on top of the first, and spread a little more frosting on top.
Take the third disk of meat, put it on top of the second, and spread a little more frosting on top. Cover this disk completely with frosting since it’ll be the top of your cake.
Use a spatula or frosting knife to spread frosting on the sides of your cake.
If you’d like to decorate your cake, use little Milk Bones. They come in colors. Arrange them artistically on top of the cake. (Actually your lucky doggy recipient won’t really care if they’re artistic or not.)
Keep this cake REFRIGERATED until you serve it to your favorite canine.
Hannah’s Note: This cake is very rich. It’s the frosting. Dole it out to your dog in small pieces.
Yield: Enough for the “good doggy” and five furry friends.
APPLE TURNOVER MURDER RECIPE INDEX
Vanilla Crack 27
Chocolate Crack 29
Chocolate Sugar Cookies 53
Marge’s Apple Turnovers 63
Mocha Nut Butterballs 78
Imperial Cereal 96
Sausage and Cheese Pancakes 107
Rose’s Zucchini Cookies 119
Chocolate Marshmallow Cookie Bars 151
Aggression Cookies 157
Wacky Cake 169
Breakfast in a Muffin 194
Sesame Seed Tea Cookies 207
Rose’s Peachy Keen Cake 215
Peachy Keen Frosting 220
Peachy Keen Glaze for Bundt Cakes 222
Sun Moon Cookies 246
Too Easy Hotdish 266
Cottage Cheese Cookies 284
Watermelon Cookies 297
Good Doggy Cake 330
Baking Conversion Chart
These conversions are approximate, but they’ll work just fine for Hannah Swensen’s recipes.
VOLUME:
U.S. Metric
½ teaspoon 2 milliliters
1 teaspoon 5 milliliters
1 tablespoon 15 milliliters
¼ cup 50 milliliters
½ cup 75 milliliters
½ cup 125 milliliters
¾ cup 175 milliliters
1 cup ¼ liter
WEIGHT:
U.S. Metric
1 ounce 28 grams
1 pound 454 grams
OVEN TEMPERATURE:
Degrees Fahrenheit Degrees Centigrade British (Regulo)Gas Mark
325 degrees F. 165 degrees C. 3
350 degrees F. 175 degrees C. 4
375 degrees F. 190 degrees C. 5
Note: Hannah’s rectangular sheet cake pan, 9 inches by 13 inches, is approximately 23 centimeters by 32.5 centimeters.
These days, everyone in Lake Eden, Minnesota isbuzzing with activity, and Hannah Swensen is noexception. But no matter how busy she may be,
Hannah can always find time to help a friend in need—especially when he’s been murdered …
Hannah Swensen has to admit that her life is pretty sweet. Things are going well in the romance department, and her bakery’s delectable confections are selling almost as fast as she can bake them. Even her good friend Claire is on Cloud Nine, head over heels with her new husband, Reverend Bob Knudson. If only they could find time to take their honeymoon!
When Bob’s childhood friend, Matthew Walters, comes to town, it seems like divine intervention. Matthew, like Bob, is a Lutheran minister with a stubborn sweet tooth. Since he’s on sabbatical, Matthew is happy to fill in for Bob while he and Claire take that long-awaited honeymoon. It sounds like the perfect plan—until Hannah finds Matthew in the rectory, face-down in a plate of Devil’s Food Cake, a single bullet in his head.
Determined to find out who killed Matthew, Hannah starts asking questions—and discovers that the good reverend wasn’t quite the saintly fellow he appeared to be. But could the gold Sacagawea coins in Sunday’s collection plate hold the key to solving the crime? Or is the murder connected to that big jewel heist out in Minneapolis? Is it possible that Matthew’s love of chocolate somehow led to his downfall? It will take some more digging to find out, but Hannah is sure of one thing: even the most half-baked murder plot can be oh so deadly …
Please turn the page for an exciting sneak peek of
Joanne Fluke’s next Hannah Swensen mystery
DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE MURDER
coming in March 2011!
Chapter One
There was absolutely nothing scary about a church in the morning. Hannah stepped onto the walkway that led from the parsonage to the side door of the church and squared her shoulders. But if there was nothing scary about the Lake Eden Holy Redeemer Lutheran Church, why was her heart racing a zillion beats a minute?
When Hannah had arrived at the parsonage only moments before, armed with a box containing four dozen Molasses Crackle Cookies for Grandma Knudson’s Bible study group, Grandma had asked Hannah for a favor. Of course Hannah had agreed. And the favor was quite simple. All Grandma wanted her to do was to go next door to the church to tell Reve
rend Matthew, the minister who was subbing for her grandson, that lunch was ready and he should come to the parsonage kitchen. Grandma had tried to call him to tell him herself, but Reverend Matthew hadn’t answered the phone in the church office.
Hannah avoided an icy patch on the walkway and shoved her hands into the pockets of her parka. It was a bright, sunny, winter day and as she neared the side door of church, she told herself that there were plenty of plausible reasons why Reverend Matthew hadn’t answered the phone. He could have been in another part of the church and hadn’t heard it ring. It was also possible that Grandma had mis-dialed, or another half-dozen equally reasonable explanations. Just because he hadn’t responded was no reason to suspect that there was anything wrong.
On the other hand, there could be something wrong. What if Reverend Matthew had fallen off a ladder while attempting to replace a light bulb in the heavy colored-glass fixtures that hung from the ceiling of the nave? Or how about the tempermental furnace in the church basement? Their regular minister, Reverend Knudson, was an expert at jiggling wires to fix it. What if Reverend Matthew had tried to do the same and electrocuted himself?
Hannah gave a little laugh at her overactive imagination. Chronicling all the mishaps that could have befallen the substitute minister was silly. She arrived at the side door to the church and unlocked it with the key Grandma Knudson had given her. Nothing was wrong. Everything was just fine. Reverend Matthew would greet her when she came in and they’d go back to the parsonage together.
Stale air rolled out to meet her as she pushed the door open and stepped in. It was scented with drying flowers and the faint odor of fuel oil from the furnace. Even though the inside door to the small windowless entry room was open, only feeble light filtered in from the stained glass windows that graced the walls in the body of the church. Hannah felt for the light switch but she couldn’t seem to find one. She debated the wisdom of leaving the outside door open for light and air, but then she remembered the huge heating bills that the church incurred every winter. This was the coldest February on record, and her eyes would adjust to the dimness.
It took a few moments after she’d closed the outside door, but at last she could see well enough to move forward in the crowded room. A tall dresser with wide, shallow drawers sat against the wall. It contained the sparkling white linen for communion. The top of the dresser held a large, round silver tray that had been polished to a high gleam by Hannah’s neighbors, Marguerite and Clara Hol-lenbeck. The tray was peppered with small nonnonindentations for tiny round glasses that would hold the communion wine. Another, smaller silver tray with a cover was next to the large tray, ready to receive the communion wafers.
Avoiding several boxes that jutted out into her path, Hannah moved toward the doorway and stepped into the main body of the church. That was much better! The sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows was gorgeous.
“Reverend Matthew?” she called out, but there was no answer. Her eyes scanned the rows of oaken pews, but the only things moving were tiny dust motes dancing in the beams of colored light. Hannah moved forward down the carpeted center aisle, heading straight for the church office. It was opposite the stairway that led up to the choir loft and it had been recently refurbished.
The door to the office was closed and Hannah hesitated. “Reverend Matthew?” she called out again, and followed her query by knocking softly on the door. “Are you there?”
There was no answer, Hannah felt her hearbeat quicken and there was a lump in her throat. This wasn’t good, not good at all. She wanted to turn tail and run, but that would be cowardly. What if Reverend Matthew was inside and he was injured in some way. Or he had been taken suddenly ill? Or … but she didn’t want to think about that!
She called his name again. Twice. And then she reached out with shaking fingers and turned the doorknob. It took all of her gumption to push the door open slightly, just far enough so that she could see the edge of the desk. And then a bit wider. And then …
Hannah stood stock still and stared at the sight that greeted her. Reverend Matthew was seated at the desk and it was obvious that he’d been working on next Sunday’s sermon because it was spread out on the desk in front of him. His head was resting on the pages, but he wasn’t asleep. There was something else on the sheets of paper and on the desktop in front of him. That something was blood. A lot of blood. More blood than Hannah ever would have guessed a human being could contain.
“Reverend Matthew?” she asked again, in a very quiet voice. She didn’t expect an answer and she didn’t get one. Reverend Matthew was stone cold dead.
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A HANNAH SWENSEN MYSTERY WITH RECIPES
KEY LIME PIE MURDER
JOANNE FLUKE
***You can buy dates already chopped at the grocery store if you don’t want to chop them yourself.
***—You can use fresh and peel and slice your own, or you can buy them already sliced and prepared in the ready-to-eat section at your produce counter, or you can use canned peaches.
***In her original recipe Lindy used white granulated sugar for rolling. Lisa and I use powdered sugar so that we won’t get the Spicy Dreams mixed up with the Molasses Crackles when we serve them on the same day down at The Cookie Jar.
***These are miniature chocolate chips. If you can’t find them in your area, you can use regular size chocolate chips and cut them in halves, or quarters. If you use them as is, they’ll sink to the bottom and make your cake hard to remove from the pan.
***Milky Way, Snickers, Mars Bars, or Almond Joy work well. You can use regular size candy bars (approximately 2 ounces) or the miniatures you buy in a bag to give out at Halloween. Ruby uses the regular size. If you choose to use the miniatures, they won’t take as long to fry as the larger size.
*** If you don’t have lemon zest, DO NOT substitute lime zest, especially from regular limes—it can be very bitter and the little flecks of green aren’t very appetizing.
****Key limes are difficult to find. If your store doesn’t have them, look for frozen key lime juice. If you can’t find that, just buy regular limes and juice those.
***If you’re in a hurry, you can use two frozen pie shells—just thaw them and use one for the bottom and one for the top.
*** If you think your eggs might be too small or too large, you can easily check them by mixing them up in a measuring cup. Four eggs should measure approximately one cup. If yours don’t, adjust by adding more egg or pouring some out.
***Orange zest is finely grated orange peel—only the orange part, not the white part.
***Lemon zest is finely grated lemon peel—only the yellow part, not the white part.
***If you don’t have sherry, dry white wine will work just fine. Dry vermouth is also an option. If you don’t want to use liquor of any type, you can simply add another ¼ cup milk.
***If you prefer a sweeter cookie, roll the dough balls in extra granulated sugar and flatten before baking.
KEY LIME PIE MURDER
Hannah rounded the corner and stopped short. Someone was sprawled out on the dirt. A woman. And she was perfectly motionless.
Hannah’s need to help another person in trouble drew her forward. The woman was facedown and Hannah was about to reach for her wrist to feel for a pulse when she saw the back of her head. This caused her to step
back without taking her pulse or touching her. No aid she could give would make any difference. This woman was quite dead.
Hannah took one halting step closer and the key lime pie she was holding dropped from her nerveless fingers as she had an awful realization. She’d seen and admired the dress this woman was wearing no more than an hour ago.
“Hannah?” Mike’s voice rang out loud and clear. “Where are you?”
“Here,” Hannah answered, finding her voice at last.
“You sound weird. What’s the matter?”
“Dead,” she said.
“Someone’s dead? Who?”
“Willa,” Hannah said. “Willa Sunquist is dead.”
Books by Joanne Fluke
Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder
Strawberry Shortcake Murder
Blueberry Muffin Murder
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder
Fudge Cupcake Murder
Sugar Cookie Murder
Peach Cobbler Murder
Cherry Cheesecake Murder
Key Lime Pie Murder
Carrot Cake Murder
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
This book is dedicated to Tooni,
who truly knew how to love.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
