Praise for the national bestselling
Cookie Cutter Shop Mysteries
When the Cookie Crumbles
“Cozy fans will enjoy the third delicious Cookie Cutter Shop Mystery.”
—Genre Go Round Reviews
“An enjoyable book with believable characters and situations. Fans of Laura Childs, Joanne Fluke, or Jenn McKinlay will savor this delightful mystery.”
—The Season
A Cookie Before Dying
“An entertaining investigative thriller…Fans of cozies will enjoy this Maryland small-town whodunit.”
—Genre Go Round Reviews
“A great combination of wit and mystery.”
Fresh Fiction
“What a great read. This well-layered, page-turning mystery kept me on my toes…I can’t wait to read the next book in this enjoyable series.”
—Dru’s Book Musings
“Virginia Lowell does it again…This excellent offering will satisfy your sleuth tooth (and make you hungry for an iced sugar cookie). Well done, Ms. Lowell! Long may you bake up delectable books with toothsome plot twists and tasty characters.”
—Sherry Ladig, Irish Music and Dance Association magazine
Cookie Dough or Die
“It’s always a joy to find a new series that…contains such promise.”
—CA Reviews
“Virginia Lowell made me a cookie cutter convert with her cleverly crafted Cookie Dough or Die. In fact, I unearthed my mother’s collection and looked at it in a whole new way after finishing this yummy tale…The writing is strong, the story line engaging, the characters ones you’d like to be your friends. This is what makes a good cozy mystery a special read. I look forward to more cookie adventures—with sprinkles and chocolate icing on top.”
—AnnArbor.com
“Readers will find the sleuthing of the main character hard to resist…This is a good cozy mystery.”
—Fresh Fiction
“Four stars! Here’s a dough-licious debut for the new Cookie Cutter Shop Mysteries…Olivia is a charming lead, and Chatterley Heights will entice cozy readers who like the drama and close-knit relationships in small towns. A great start to a new series.”
—RT Book Reviews
“This was a great read. With a wonderful cast of characters and a great setting, this story will have you craving for one more cookie. The tone was very comfortable, and the witty and entertaining dialogue kept me engaged as I quickly turned the pages…[A] welcome addition to the cozy genre.”
—Dru’s Book Musings
“The author does a great job of setting up this new series. She includes such vivid descriptions of Olivia’s store that you can visualize the store and nearly smell the scent of baking cookies. Realistic, humorous dialogue supports the plot and keeps the story moving forward…Fans of Joanne Fluke or of Jenn McKinlay’s Cupcake Bakery Mysteries will enjoy this new culinary mystery series.”
—The Season
“Practically jumps off the page with an endearing heroine (and her little dog, too); smart, wisecracking dialogue; an ingenious plot; and a thoroughly satisfying, melt-in-your-mouth ending. And the cookie references were tempting enough to send me to the kitchen to whomp up a batch of my mother’s favorite decorated butter-sugar cookies (no kidding, I did). If you love mysteries set in a small town and treats fresh from the oven, follow this author! You will not be disappointed.”
—Sherry Ladig, Irish Music and Dance Association magazine
Berkley Prime Crime titles by Virginia Lowell
COOKIE DOUGH OR DIE
A COOKIE BEFORE DYING
WHEN THE COOKIE CRUMBLES
ONE DEAD COOKIE
One Dead
Cookie
VIRGINIA LOWELL
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | India | South Africa | China
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
For more information about the Penguin Group, visit penguin.com.
ONE DEAD COOKIE
A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author
Copyright © 2013 by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group.
BERKLEY® PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME logo are
trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-1-101-62443-2
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / July 2013
Cover illustration by Mary Ann Lasher.
Cover design by George Long.
Interior text design by Kristin del Rosario.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.
In memory of my mother and
her bookcases filled with mysteries
Acknowledgments
Writing this series has brought so many extraordinary people into my life. I am grateful to the members of the National Cookie Cutter Collectors Club for their tireless enthusiasm and the depth of their cookie-cutter knowledge, which they share generously. Many, many thanks to the wonderful and creative writers at www.killercharacters.com. As always, I want to thank my editor, Michelle Vega, who is a joy to work with, and the talented folks at Berkley Prime Crime. I am indebted to Jean Wohlers, whose luscious cutout cookie recipe, slightly altered, appears in this book—although I must admit that her cookies taste better than mine. And to Sherry Ladig, a special thanks for her discerning eye and for teaching me, just in time, that “combining lemon extract and rosewater in one cookie is like putting two divas on stage at the same time.”
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Recipes
Chapter One
Olivia Greyson could feel his eyes watching her. She knew what was going on, and she refused to be duped. Olivia concentrated on the cardboard box next to her on the sofa. The contents glowed in the soft light from the lamp on the side table. Olivia l
ifted one of the objects, a shiny aluminum butterfly shape, possibly the last cookie cutter her friend Clarisse Chamberlain had purchased. A few weeks later, she’d been murdered.
That’s when the manipulative little guy pulled out the big guns. He whimpered.
“Oh, honestly,” Olivia said, her exasperation tinged with guilt. “You make it sound like I’ve locked you in prison with no food or water. I know we ran out of your treats. I’m sorry, but I just don’t have time to go out and find a store that’s open this time of night.”
Olivia’s rescue Yorkshire terrier, Spunky, sat on top of the Queen Anne desk, which Olivia had placed under the front window of her second-story apartment. It was Spunky’s favorite spot in the living room. He had a clear view of the entire room, including the television, and he could look out the window onto the Chatterley Heights town square.
Spunky dropped his head onto his paws as if all hope had fled.
“Nice try, Spunks. I told you, Maddie promised to pick up a box of your favorite goodies on her way to the store tomorrow morning. That’s the best I can—”
With sudden, renewed energy, Spunky jumped up and peered out the window, his ears perked. He stood on his hind legs, front paws tapping on the glass, and growled.
“What is it, Spunky?” Olivia hurried to the window and squinted into the darkness beyond her porch light. She couldn’t see her own front door, which was also the door to The Gingerbread House, the store Olivia owned and operated with her best friend since age ten, Maddie Briggs. If someone was trying to break in…Olivia looked around for her cell phone, then remembered she’d left it in her bedroom to charge. She’d have to use the kitchen phone.
Spunky started yapping. His nails scraped on the window as if he wanted to jump out and chase something…or someone. Olivia doused the living room lights and rejoined her guard dog. All she saw was darkness, but Spunky kept up his fierce warning. His attention focused on the right side of the park. Streetlamps provided some light for the sidewalks around the square, but not much beyond. The businesses that lined the square showed up in outline. Most of them used porch lights at night, but not much more than sixty-watt bulbs. Chatterley Heights considered itself safe from big-city crime, despite evidence to the contrary.
Olivia couldn’t see anything suspicious outside. She wondered if it was worth calling 911 because Spunky saw something he didn’t like. He didn’t like squirrels or chipmunks or cats or most other dogs. At that moment, Spunky lost interest. He dropped to all fours and yawned. Olivia hoped the excitement had distracted him from his obsession with his missing treats. Just in case, she turned on Animal Planet before returning to her box of cookie cutters.
Olivia settled on her sofa and picked up the butterfly cookie cutter that had reminded her of Clarisse Chamberlain. Olivia still missed their long talks. Clarisse had been both friend and business mentor to her. It was due to Clarisse’s encouragement that Olivia had mustered the courage to open The Gingerbread House. For that alone, Olivia felt deeply grateful. Working in The Gingerbread House, helping customers select sugar sprinkles or icing colors, baking and decorating cookies with Maddie: all of it made Olivia’s heart smile even when her feet ached.
Clarisse Chamberlain had amassed an impressive and valuable cookie cutter collection, which she’d bequeathed to Olivia. The box next to her on the sofa and the ones on the living room floor were only a small part of that collection. Clarisse would have been delighted to know that her beloved cutters would be featured at the upcoming engagement party for Maddie and her fiancé, Lucas Ashford, owner of Heights Hardware, right next door.
In happier times, Olivia and Clarisse had once explored a huge flea market a few miles from Chatterley Heights. One vendor had been selling off his deceased mother’s substantial cookie cutter collection, much of which dated back to the 1980s and ’90s. The cutters were interesting but not terribly valuable. With a sudden gasp, Clarisse had grabbed a simple, well-used butterfly shape and held it in the palm of her hand. “My mother had a cutter exactly like this,” she’d said. “It was her favorite. I couldn’t find it among her things after her death.” Olivia now held that very cutter in the palm of her own hand. She smoothed her fingertip over a dent in the wing, remembering Clarisse’s delight that the piece was worn, which meant it had been loved. Olivia placed it on her coffee table.
Spunky, now bored with the animal channel, eyed the butterfly cookie cutter on the coffee table, his ears perked with interest. He must have decided it was either a treat or a toy, because he hopped off his perch on the desk, trotted over to the coffee table, and jumped up. He sniffed the butterfly’s wing and wagged his fluffy tail.
Olivia knew what that meant. Spunky had decided the butterfly was a doggie toy. “Hey,” Olivia said. “Not everything in this apartment belongs to you, kiddo.”
Spunky, naturally, dismissed his mistress’s statement as illogical and tried to capture the entire butterfly in his teeth. When that proved awkward, he nudged the cutter off the table with his nose and leaped down after it. Olivia followed, but not fast enough. Spunky caught the hemmed edge of the butterfly wing between his teeth and pranced toward the kitchen.
“This is a sneaky way to get some extra dog food, isn’t it?” Olivia followed Spunky into the kitchen. As she reached into his bag of dry food, the phone rang. Olivia glanced at her clock. Midnight. The phone had come with the house, and Olivia had gotten a new answering machine installed with caller ID. It hadn’t taken long to discover that only telemarketers called her home number, so she usually left the answering machine unplugged. Her cell was in her bedroom, turned off and plugged into its charger. She figured the call was probably from Maddie, who never paid attention to the time when she wanted to talk.
“Maddie can wait until tomorrow morning,” Olivia explained to Spunky, who never took his liquid brown eyes off the kibbles in his mistress’s hand. “You and I need to finish selecting the cutters to use for this ever-expanding extravaganza she insists on hosting.”
On the other hand, what if it’s an emergency? As Olivia reached for the receiver, the phone went silent.
Olivia dropped some of the dry food into Spunky’s bowl and poured herself a glass of merlot. Before she could wedge the cork back into the bottle, the phone rang again. Olivia took a small sip of wine and answered.
“I assume you are engrossed in party planning?”
“Hi, Maddie. Did you know it’s past midnight? And that it’s my turn to open the store tomorrow morning, bright and early?” Olivia watched Spunky dive into his late snack with reckless abandon.
“Have you been drinking merlot without me? Hang on, I’ll be right over.”
“Oh no, you won’t,” Olivia said. “We agreed. This is my gift to you, since you won’t accept anything that costs actual money. I’m making special cookies and a magnificent cookie cake for your engagement party, using original recipes and Clarisse’s cutters.”
A long and distinctly audible sigh traveled across the phone line. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Livie, but…”
“What, you think I’m not creative enough to come up with a couple new cookie recipes? Hold that thought. I want to get my cell from the bedroom. I’ll call you right back.”
Olivia retrieved her cell and speed-dialed Maddie, who said, “Don’t be silly. If we were talking casseroles, then yes, I can’t see you creating anything remotely edible. But cookies? No problem. It’s just that…well, you know me. I don’t want to miss the fun. Couldn’t I be your helper? Pretty please with pink petal dust on top?”
“I wonder…,” Olivia murmured as she thought, Petals…petals make me think of flowers and—
“You’ll let me help?” Maddie asked.
“You just did.” Olivia envisioned a pyramid made of daisy-shaped cookies with a bouquet of fresh flowers on top. Maddie and Lucas’s party would be held in the extravagant garden behind the upscale Bon Vivant restaurant, so the theme was…“Perfect,” Olivia said.
“Come on, L
ivie. I could just help you bake. You’d hardly notice I was there.”
“Impossible. See you in the store tomorrow.”
“Poop head,” Maddie said. “Anyway, that isn’t why I called. And don’t hang up, you’ll want to hear this.”
“Hmm?” Olivia walked back into the living room and used her remote to mute the television. On Animal Planet, lions were hunting down antelopes. At least, Olivia thought they were antelopes. She cringed, but Spunky, who’d made fast work of the kibbles and had returned to his earlier post, looked fascinated, in a predatory sort of way. Holding her cell to her ear, Olivia nestled on the sofa along with the box of cookie cutters.
“I hope you’re listening, Livie, because you’ll want to know this. It involves Binnie Sloan.”
“Uh-oh, what has our intrepid pseudo-reporter immortalized in print this time?” Binnie Sloan published the local newspaper, The Weekly Chatter, which consisted mostly of gossip.
“A rumor,” Maddie said. “At least that’s what Binnie claims. I’m guessing she made it up. She hinted in her blog that you and Del had a parting of the ways and no longer speak to each other.”
“Really? I wonder when that happened. You’d think I’d remember.” Olivia began to rummage through a box of cutters, hunting for flower shapes.
“Binnie was vague on that point,” Maddie said, “but apparently a huge fight was involved, unforgivable insults were exchanged, and irreconcilable differences ensued. She did refer to your tendency to stick your nose into Del’s professional business and that he’s sick of it.”
“Was that a quote from Del?” Olivia found a tulip cookie cutter and started a pile of garden-themed shapes on her coffee table.
“Binnie implied that she’d spoken with Del, so I’m guessing he said no such thing. It doesn’t even sound like him. Del is a pretty easygoing guy, plus I doubt he’d give Binnie an interview under any circumstances.”
Olivia knew from personal experience that Del could get testy on occasion, but only about something important. Like her safety…and her apparent disregard for it. That was an issue they continued to work on, but Del had shown no signs of extreme frustration with Olivia or their relationship. Quite the opposite, in fact. “Well, thanks for the update,” Olivia said. “I don’t intend to fret, and I’m sure Del won’t either. And now I need to get back to…well, you’ll just have to wait and see.”
One Dead Cookie Page 1
