fuonlyknew

Book Description:

Celebrity chef Laura Harris dwells on the horror of finding her mentor’s body in the groundskeeper’s disheveled bed—pillow and bedding half covering her open eyes—purple bruising around her mouth. A grisly snapshot in time revealing the Texas woman’s last moments during her attack. The elderly matriarch from the small town of Stenburg has left the physical world, and Laura is shattered.

She is catapulted headlong into the pursuit of a casual executioner, one bold enough to come and go from the crime scene with ease, dropping bizarre crumb trails designed to mock the deceased. But Laura herself doesn’t go unnoticed. As she digs deeper, she is followed and bombarded by warnings to leave the state.

When the victim’s attorney informs Laura that she’s to inherit the entire Stenburg fortune, the last act of kindness has made Laura the main person of interest in the investigation.

​Message by message, Laura is methodically taunted by someone so deranged and driven they’ll do whatever it takes to dislodge Laura from Texas – permanently.

MY REVIEW

I do like my mysteries and the author had me coming and going, at a loss as to the who or why in this one.

I like a strong female protagonist and Laura fits the bill. She has a protective instinct along with some stubbornness. When she visits her mentor and friend, elderly Hattie, she notices something’s off. She seems so frail. She knows something is very wrong when she discovers Hattie dead. What killed her? Why was she in the grounds keeper’s house? These are some of the questions she asks herself and she smells a rat.

I mentioned the author was adept at keeping me guessing. There were plenty of false trails and suspects. I’d love to say I had it all figured out. Not the case and I enjoyed how it all wrapped up.

4 STARS

An Interview With Main Character Laura Harris

A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT

1. Laura, you’ve spent your adult life as a pastry chef and suddenly you’re unraveling mysteries. Looking back, do you see any hints that your life would evolve like this? Did you love reading mysteries growing up? Were you especially observant or – dare I say it – nosy? Do you have any special training – maybe martial arts or military training?

Solving murders or unraveling a heinous crime never entered my thoughts on any level. Fate can drop things in our path, both good and bad. I’m a chef with a dream to attain the coveted Mechlin Star for my own restaurant one day. Being part of my family’s winery, tasting room, and restaurant was the avenue to accomplish this until the feud with my sister, DeeDee made it feel more like a wild fantasy. 

The closest I get to reading in earnest would have to be non-fiction cookbooks. My formal training is in French pastry but I love cooking in general. As a matter of fact, I’m in the process of publishing my first cookbook in a few months. I do love a good mystery, though. Except when it involves someone close to home and as special to me as Hattie Stenburg was. I can’t move forward in my career plans until I find the monster who killed my friend.   

2. You moved back to Texas to help your family out but what do you miss most about California?

California is a beautiful state with everything for everyone; the Pacific Ocean’s pristine beaches, majestic blue foothills and craggy mountains, tall redwood forests and big city life, as well as quaint valley towns with a rich heritage. The overall weather in California can’t be beaten, in my opinion. It’s mild temperatures hardly vary from winter to the summer months unless you’re in snow country. 

My favorite place in the world is found at the 6,225-foot elevation in the high Sierra Mountains. Meeks Bay Resort near Tahoma, CA on Lake Tahoe. The cabins sit just off of the main highway that encircles the lake on the west side. I spent many family vacations there with aunts, uncles, and cousins, bunking in rustic cabins around the July 4th holiday. The aroma of native trees such as aspens and live oaks and numerous varieties of pines populate the landscape and surround that cold, clear lake. The freshest air imaginable enters the senses at high elevations. The most peaceful place on the planet! I learned to waterski in Tahoe’s freezing water. A sixty-degree mountain lake made from snow melt requires a wetsuit to swim the middle even in July. Novice skiers learn to pop out of the water quickly in an environment like that. I sure did! 

3. What about Texas? What’s the one thing about home that you can never get enough of?

We actually see the changing seasons in East Texas. Fall color is unbelievable in the Woodlands. A plus is living in a wilderness with nature so close to our houses where we’re home to many creatures not seen in California such as the little excavators we call, nine-banded armadillos. They’re truly prehistoric-looking with their claws on each foot and armor covering them from their pointed snouts to the tip of their tails. Their armored plates have the look of metal, too. Armadillos have terrible eyesight, so if you’re lucky enough to come across one, you can photograph them until they smell your approach. I’ve learned to stay downwind for best results. White-tailed deer enter our properties by the hundreds and a host of skunks and foxes, including the nighttime prowlers; coyotes and the occasional mountain lion share the scenic grounds. In short, the wildlife is breathtaking and plentiful. It’s a plus when they’re near enough to get great photos. 

4. You worked at your family’s restaurant, a friend’s bakery as well as many other places during your training as a chef. Do you have a favorite dish/sweet treat you like to make?

My personal favorite are French profiteroles like those I brought to Hattie before she, uh…was taken from us. Little puffs of heaven I like to call them. Luscious cream-filled puff pastries drizzled with the finest Belgian chocolate. When I want to liven things up, I sometimes fill them with the most delectable vanilla custard and add whisps of raspberries on top before serving. Of course, whiskey replaced the vanilla flavoring for Hattie. How I’ll miss making her special desserts and the decades of letters we wrote to each other.

Texans are partial to sheet cakes, I found out. Place a sheet cake on one end of the table and offer a tempting dish of handcrafted desserts at the other end to Texas guests—and when the party is over, the fancy plate will hardly be touched. The sheet cake will be gone with only crumbs remaining. It’s taken me a while to get used to the simple desserts locals prefer, like fried pies, banana pudding, and peach cobbler. Chocolate sheet cakes are the winner I always keep in the freezer. My bakery partner, Duska Novak can plow through an entire 13×9 cake she’s made herself, and it’s gone in two days!  

5. Laura, I’m sure you know I love to read! So, tell us what do you like to read? Please tell me it isn’t just cookbooks (although they can be fun). 

Since you’ve taken cookbooks off the list, a close second are novels by new authors or independent writers. Writing books is arduous (as I’ve learned,) and anyone who has the time, money, and stomach to publish books on their own without a publisher’s backing deserves a chance at new readers. I’ve recently picked up an author whose written several books in an international series that spans Europe as well as countries down under. You might have heard of her; Marlene M. Bell. A Texas sheep breeder turned novelist. She has a new book out called, A Hush at Midnight. It’s not from her Annalisse series, but I’m curious to see how she describes Texas in this latest novel. I hear she has a main character with the same name as mine who is also a chef. Isn’t that interesting? I can’t wait to read her slant on Texas!

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to your readers!