by Sherri Bryan
“Mummy, come on!” called Molly.
“Goodbye old friend,” she whispered. “Thank you for everything.”
The End
This is not the end - Charlotte will be back!
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Other books by Sherri Bryan
The Charlotte Denver Cozy Mystery Series
TAPAS, CARROT CAKE AND A CORPSE – Book One (Free ebook download)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y7XAX26
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Y7XAX26
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00Y7XAX26
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00Y7XAX26
FUDGE CAKE, FELONY AND A FUNERAL – Book Two
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010K6KS46
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B010K6KS46
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B010K6KS46
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B010K6KS46
SPARE RIBS, SECRETS AND A SCANDAL – Book Three
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01449K8NG
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01449K8NG
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01449K8NG
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01449K8NG
PUMPKINS, PERIL AND A PAELLA – Book Four
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018B5TJSE
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B018B5TJSE
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B018B5TJSE
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B018B5TJSE
HAMBURGERS, HOMICIDE AND A HONEYMOON – Book Five
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G0NC0VM
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01G0NC0VM
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01G0NC0VM
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01G0NC0VM
CRAB CAKES, KILLERS AND A KAFTAN – Book Six
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M20QZ2V
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M20QZ2V
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M20QZ2V
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01M20QZ2V
MINCE PIES, MISTLETOE AND MURDER – Book Seven
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MU6A4VH
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MU6A4VH
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01MU6A4VH
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MU6A4VH
DOUGHNUTS, DIAMONDS AND DEAD MEN – Book Eight
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073ZD31DR
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073ZD31DR
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B073ZD31DR
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B073ZD31DR
BREAD, DEAD AND WED – Book Nine
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KFQS7NQ
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07KFQS7NQ
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07KFQS7NQ
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07KFQS7NQ
The Bliss Bay Village Mystery Series
BODIES, BADDIES AND A CRABBY TABBY – Book One – See summary below.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D67YSH9
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D67YSH9
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07D67YSH9
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07D67YSH9
SECRETS, LIES AND PUPPY DOG EYES – Book Two
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N8HN7PZ
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07N8HN7PZ
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07N8HN7PZ
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07N8HN7PZ
Thirty-nine-year-old Megan Fallon is in a pickle.
Not only is she suffering from empty-nest syndrome, but she’s lost the job she loved, and her fiancé’s run off with her hairdresser.
A complete life change is what’s called for so, when the opportunity to make a new start presents itself following news of a family celebration, Megan is lured back to her childhood home.
With a party to organise, old friends to catch up with, a flirtatious ex-husband and his jealous wife to avoid, a mischievous favourite uncle who’s on the lookout for adventure, a clumsy childhood acquaintance who has undergone a startling transformation, and a cantankerous tabby cat to contend with, Megan has her hands full.
However, what started off as a leisurely break takes a chilling turn when members of the community start getting bumped off at an alarming rate, and Megan finds herself at the heart of an investigation that has her suspecting everyone.
Could the murderer be the local finance advisor, whose misjudged investment recommendation cost his clients their life savings?
Or maybe the village celebrity; a footballer who appears to have at least one skeleton in a cupboard he’d prefer was kept firmly locked?
Or what about a member of a classical music trio who seem to have plenty of secrets they’d rather keep to themselves?
Or is the killer someone else entirely?
As Megan becomes involved in the hunt for a murderer, it’s not long before she finds out that some of the villagers are harbouring other secrets too.
A Selection of Recipes from Bread, Dead and Wed
Chocolate Crunch
Makes eight portions
Ingredients
210g/7oz plain flour
30g/1oz cocoa powder
150g/5oz butter or margarine
150g/5oz sugar
1 egg
Method
Preheat oven to gas mark 7, 220ºC, or 200ºC fan oven and line a 10” x 10” x 2” tin with baking paper.
Melt the butter or margarine and the sugar in a saucepan over a low heat.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add the wet ingredients to them and mix thoroughly.
Press the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until a skewer or knife comes out clean.
Mark into sections with a knife while still warm.
Allow to cool and dust with icing sugar.
Lemon Biscuits
Makes 16 biscuits
Ingredients
2 level cups/8oz/225g plain flour
Half a teaspoon of salt
Half a cup/113g/4oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup/8oz/225g sugar
1 egg
Half a teaspoon of baking soda (Bicarbonate of soda)
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
6 tablespoons lemon juice
Method
Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF, and line two baking sheets with baking paper.
Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and zest.
In another bowl, mix butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add the egg and lemon juice and mix together well.
Tip the flour mix into the wet ingredients and mix until everything is combined.
Drop walnut-sized blobs of the batter onto the prepared sheets and press down the top with a wet spoon. (The biscuits will spread as they cook, so don’t be tempted to put too many on the trays, or you’ll end up with one enormous biscuit).
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the edges are golden.
Allow to cool before eating.
Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Tomato and Spinach Sauce
Makes six portions
Ingredients for the sauce
Four tablespoons of olive oil
2 lbs/1 kilogram ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 level teaspoon dried oregano, or 2 teaspoons fresh oregano leaves
Half a teaspoon of dried thyme, or 1 level teaspoon of fresh leaves,
1 small dried chilli (if you don’t like the heat, you can leave this out)
1 bag baby spinach leaves
1 cup of cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Ingredients for the gnocchi
1lb/500g of sweet potato
1 cup/250g/8oz full fat ricotta cheese, drained of all excess liquid
½ cup/60g/2oz freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1½ teaspoons of salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1¼ c
ups/160g/6oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
To serve
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Method
To make the tomato sauce
Heat the olive oil over a gentle heat in a large pan.
Add the chopped tomatoes to the pan with the chopped onion, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and chilli, if using.
Add the herbs and cook over a gentle heat until the tomatoes are soft enough to blend.
Allow the sauce to cool for a few minutes before blending in a blender, or blitzing with a hand blender until smooth. Note: Take care, because the sauce will still be very hot.
Return the blended sauce to the pan and add the spinach leaves. Cook until they are just wilted.
Add the cream to the sauce, heat through, and check for seasoning. Cover and set aside until your gnocchi is ready.
To make the gnocchi
Prick the sweet potatoes with a fork all over. You can either bake them in the oven, or the microwave but, either way, they need to be completely soft. This should take around an hour in a regular oven, or between seven and ten minutes on full power in a microwave oven, depending on how powerful your microwave is.
When the potatoes are soft, allow them to cook a little, then scoop out the flesh into a bowl and discard the skins.
Add the parmesan and ricotta cheeses to the bowl with the sweet potato, together with the salt and pepper, and stir until everything is smooth.
Add the flour a little at a time, kneading gently after each addition. Note: It is very important that you don’t over-knead it at this stage, or the final gnocchi will be tough and chewy, instead of light and melt-in-the mouth.
When all the flour has been incorporated, transfer the dough onto a floured board, or kitchen counter, and form it into a rectangle. Cut slices from the dough and roll them into long, thin sausage shapes.
To shape your gnocchi, cut each sausage of dough into approximately one inch pieces. Make sure each piece is coated with flour and place on a plate or tray. Note: After the gnocchi has been cut into one inch pieces, it can be frozen or refrigerated for use at a later date.
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil, turn down the heat to a simmer, and add the gnocchi, cooking until they rise to the top. Leave them for a few seconds to bob about on the surface, then remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and place on a plate until all the gnocchi is cooked.
Add the cooked gnocchi to the hot tomato, spinach and cream sauce, and toss until every piece is coated in sauce.
Serve in large bowls with plenty of parmesan to scatter on top, and bread to mop up the sauce.
Raisin Bread
Makes two loaves
Ingredients
1 x 7 g/¼ oz packet of dry yeast (2¼ teaspoons)
¼ cup/60 ml/2 fl oz warm water (about 110ºF/43ºC)
1½ cups/190 g/6½ oz raisins (you can use sultanas, cranberries, or other dried fruit, if you prefer)
¼ cup/2oz/57g butter, softened
¼ cup/2oz/52g sugar (I have only tried this with white sugar, so can’t vouch for results with brown).
1½ teaspoons salt
½ cup/125ml/4 fl oz warm milk
3¾ cups/450g/1 lb plain (all-purpose) flour
2 large eggs, beaten
Method
Preheat the oven to 375ºF/190ºC and grease two 8” x 4” loaf tins.
Add the yeast to the warm water and mix until dissolved. Set aside.
Put the raisins, butter, sugar, salt, and warm milk into a large bowl, and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Let the mixture stand and cool till it’s just lukewarm.
Stir 1½ cups of the flour into the raisin mixture and beat well until smooth.
Now add the yeast mixture and the eggs to the raisin mixture and mix everything together well. Add just enough of the remaining flour to make a soft, stiff dough.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it until it feels smooth and elastic. This should take around 15 minutes.
Rub the surface of a large bowl lightly with oiled kitchen paper and place the dough in it.
Roll the dough in the bowl to ensure the whole surface is covered in oil.
Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and let it stand in a warm place, free of draughts, until it’s doubled in size, which should take between 1 and 1½ hours.
Give the dough a punch and split it into two equal portions. Cover the dough again with a tea towel, and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Shape the dough into two loaves and place them in the prepared tins.
Cover the tins with a tea towel and leave the loaves to rise for between ¾hour and 1 hour, or until the dough has almost doubled in size.
Bake for 25 minutes. If it looks like the bread is browning too much, cover the loaves with foil for the last ten minutes of baking.
Turn the loaves onto racks and allow to cool.
Please note: I followed the cups measurements for the Lemon Biscuits and Raisin Bread when I made them, but I have attempted to convert them to ounces and grams for anyone who might like to try them using imperial or metric. Whilst these should give similar results, I cannot vouch for them personally.
A Message from Sherri
Hello, and thank you for the taking the time to read this book, the ninth in the Charlotte Denver mystery series.
As I’ve mentioned before, the fictional setting of the town of St. Eves was inspired by many happy holidays spent in the beautiful English counties of Cornwall and Devon, and by Spain, the country I now call home.
I have loved writing every book in the series, and I hope you’ve enjoyed them, too. If you have, I’d love to hear from you. Your feedback is so important - constructive criticism included!
Also, if you’d like to, I’d appreciate it very much if you’d please consider leaving me a review on Amazon. No pressure at all, of course, but thanks if you do. Feedback from readers is so important to indie writers, and your opinion could help other readers to decide whether or not to take a chance on a book.
As with all my books, this one has been proofread, edited and then proofread again - more times than I can recall - but there may still be the odd mistake within its pages. If you should come across one, I’d be grateful if you could let me know so I can put it right.
You can contact me by email at [email protected], on Twitter at @sbryanwrites or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sherribryanauthor. Even if you’d just like to drop me a line to say hello, please do! I’d love for you to get in touch!
If you’d like to receive notifications for forthcoming book releases, along with details of discounts and other book-related news from time to time, please visit my website at https://sherribryan.com, or my Facebook page, where you can join my readers’ group. Please don’t worry, I promise I won’t flood your inbox with messages and, as I respect your privacy, I won’t share your name or email address with anyone, either.
Thank you again for your support,
With warm regards, as always,
Sherri.
Dedication
To Mum,
With love.
About Sherri Bryan
Sherri lives in southern Spain with her husband and her rescue dog.
If she’s not tapping away on her keyboard, you’ll either find her with her nose in a book, creating something experimental in the kitchen, playing with the dog or dreaming up new mystery plots.
All Rights Reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, and publisher, of this piece of work, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination, or are used in an entirely fictitious manner.
> Whilst I have tried to be accurate throughout, for dramatic purposes, my imagination may have called for actual facts and procedures to be slightly ‘skewed’ from time to time, and I hope this will not detract from your enjoyment of the story.
Any other resemblance to organizations, actual events or actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Published by Sherri Bryan - Copyright ©2018