Gourd to Death

by Kirsten Weiss

  He smiled. “I’m counting on it.”

  VAL’S PUMPKIN BREAD

  Ingredients

  1 ⅓ cup flour

  ¾ tsp. baking powder

  1 tsp. baking soda

  tsp. salt

  1 tsp. cinnamon

  ½ tsp. nutmeg

  ⅓ cup shortening

  1 ⅓ cup sugar

  ½ tsp. vanilla

  2 eggs

  1 cup cooked and mashed pumpkin (or canned)

  ⅓ cup cooking sherry

  1 cup chopped walnuts

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a medium mixing bowl, cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Add two eggs to the mixing bowl, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Stir in pumpkin. Add dry ingredients and then cooking sherry. Fold in nuts.

  Pour into 9 × 5 loaf pan.

  Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 60 minutes. Use a toothpick to test for doneness.

  Can’t get enough of the antics of

  Val, Charlene, and the Pie Town Crew?

  Don’t miss the rest of the series,

  available now from

  Kirsten Weiss and

  Kensington Books,

  wherever books are sold!

  Photo courtesy of Kirsten Weiss

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Based in San Mateo, CA, Kirsten Weiss writes genre-blending novels: urban fantasy/mystery, steampunk/ suspense, and cozy mysteries. The mix just makes things more fun! Kirsten has never met a dessert she didn’t like, and her guilty pleasures are watching Ghost Whisperer reruns and drinking red wine. Readers can find her online at www.kirstenweiss.com.

  THE QUICHE AND THE DEAD

  Is Val’s breakfast pie the quiche of death?

  Owning her own business seemed like pie in the sky to

  Valentine Harris when she moved to the coastal

  California town of San Nicholas,

  expecting to start a new life with her fiancé.

  Five months—and a broken engagement—later, at least

  her dream of opening a pie shop has become a reality.

  But when one of her regulars keels over at the counter

  while eating a quiche,

  Val feels like she’s living a nightmare.

  After the police determine the customer was poisoned,

  business at Pie Town drops faster than a fallen crust.

  Convinced they’re both suspects,

  Val’s flaky, seventysomething piecrust maker Charlene

  drags her boss into some amateur sleuthing.

  At first Val dismisses Charlene’s half-baked hypotheses,

  but before long the ladies uncover some shady dealings

  hidden in fog-bound San Nicholas.

  Now Val must expose the truth—before a crummy

  killer tries to shut her pie hole.

  BLEEDING TARTS

  Val’s new pies are foolproof—but not bulletproof.

  Old West ghost towns are as American as apple pie.

  So what better place to sponsor a pie-eating contest than

  the Bar X, a fake ghost town available for exclusive

  private events on the edge of Silicon Valley.

  Valentine Harris is providing the pies, hoping to boost

  business for her struggling Pie Town shop

  and become a regular supplier for the Bar X.

  But no sooner does she arrive in town than a stray bullet

  explodes the cherry pie in her hands. And the delicious

  dessert is not the only victim. Val finds the Bar X

  bartender shot dead in an alley.

  Egged on by her flaky friend and piecrust specialist,

  Charlene, Val aims to draw out the shooter. But solving a

  real murder in a fake ghost town won’t be easy as pie.

  And if Val doesn’t watch her back, her pies won’t be the

  only thing filled full of lead . . .

  PIE HARD

  Will Val pie hard on national TV?

  Business at the bakery may have slowed down,

  but Val Harris isn’t about to eat humble pie—not until

  a reality cooking show decides to whip the struggling

  Pie Town into shape. If Val can tolerate criticism

  from an abrasive pastry chef during filming,

  the free publicity might turn the unusual opportunity

  into the sweetest deal she didn’t know she needed.

  Except no one in San Nicholas has an appetite for

  dessert once murder steals the spotlight. When the

  show’s bossy producer gets pushed to her death, Val and

  her flaky, septuagenarian piecrust expert, Charlene,

  follow crumbs in hopes of finding the killer.

  But with cameras still rolling and the shocking identity

  of the victim’s replacement a guaranteed recipe

  for disaster, Val needs to stay cool long enough to solve

  the crime and keep Pie Town from falling apart—

  or else she just might go up in smoke

  before she ever graces the small screen.