Crypt Suzette (A Five-Ingredient Mystery) by Maya Corrigan
About the Book
Cozy Mystery
6th in Series
Kensington (August 27, 2019)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 1496722426
ISBN-13: 978-1496722423
Digital ASIN: B07L2GDD8H
EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 2Val Deniston is catering the debut of Bayport’s newest bookstore—but the death of a customer is about to draw her into a real-life murder mystery …Suzette Cripps has been occupying a spare bedroom at Val’s granddad’s house while she takes classes in this Maryland Eastern Shore town—but she’s always seemed a little secretive and fearful, and any talk about her past is a closed book.After winning the costume contest at the Halloween-themed bookstore party, Suzette is mowed down by a hit-and-run driver—and Val and her grandfather start to wonder whether it was really an accident or if someone was after Suzette. Granddad is a little distracted by his new enterprise as a ghost-buster, but as Val talks to Suzette’s coworkers and fellow creative writing students, she grows more convinced that the dead woman’s demons weren’t imaginary—and that she needs to rip the mask off a killer …Includes delicious five-ingredient recipes!
Granddad emerged from the dark driveway into the light cast by the streetlamp. He resembled a professor in a pullover sweater with patched elbows, wire-rimmed bifocals, and the beard he’d started growing for his Santa Claus role in December.
“If you folks are looking for the ghost, you’re wasting your time. It’s gone. As a qualified ghost hunter, I got rid of it.”
Val stifled a laugh. First a food guru, then a senior sleuth, and now a ghost hunter. It had bothered her when Granddad claimed cooking expertise to snag a job as the newspaper’s recipe columnist. It had bothered her even more when he touted his skills as a detective after taking an online investigation course. But reinventing himself as a ghost hunter struck her as a fair response to the tour guide’s invention of a ghost.
A man in the crowd laughed. “If there’s no ghost, you’d better take this house off the tour.”
A breeze ruffled the white curls over Granddad ears. “Yup. This is officially a ghost-free zone.”
An older woman sidled up to the tour leader. “My neighbor says she has a ghost. Things keep disappearing from her house. You can substitute her place for this one.”
Granddad waggled his finger back and forth. “Just ’cause stuff go missing doesn’t mean you have a ghost. Ghosts have no use for material objects.”
He reached under his V-neck sweater, pulled business cards from his shirt pocket, and handed one to the woman. “I help people find missing things in my sleuth service. Tell your friend to call me. Anyone else want one?” He fanned out business cards in his hand.
“I’m not promoting this man’s service,” the tour leader said. “Let’s move on to our next stop . . .the old graveyard.”
Granddad’s tactics made Val cringe, but she couldn’t argue with success. He’d gotten rid of this group and possibly even kept his house from being on the next ghost tour.
A third of the people in the group took Granddad’s card before following their leader. The last to take a card was a young black woman. She stayed behind as the others disappeared in the direction of the historic district.
She squinted at Granddad’s card under the streetlamp and approached him. “You’re the same Don Myer who writes the Codger Cook column for the Treadwell Gazette?” At his nod, she introduced herself and added, “I have an internship as a reporter at the Gazette.”
Though Val didn’t catch the young woman’s name, the word reporter made her wary. Would Granddad’s nonsense about ghost hunting make it into the newspaper? Val moved closer to him.
The would-be reporter glanced at her and then turned back to him. “My assignment is to write about Eastern Shore ghost walks. Can I ask you a few questions about your ghost-hunting experience?”
Val answered for him. “We haven’t had dinner yet. Maybe some other time.” She tried to nudge Granddad toward the house. Proclaiming himself a ghost hunter to get rid of gawkers wasn’t bad, but making the same claim in print would open him up to ridicule.
About Maya Corrigan
Maya Corrigan blends her love of food and detective stories in her Five-Ingredient Mystery series set in a fictional historic town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The first book in the series, By Cook or by Crook, was published in 2014.
Before taking up a life of crime (on the page), she taught university courses in writing, detective fiction, American literature, and drama. She won the 2013 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Unpublished Mainstream Mystery / Suspense. Her short stories, written under the name of Mary Ann Corrigan, have been published in anthologies.
When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, tennis, trivia, cooking, and crosswords. Her website features trivia about food and mysteries.
WebPage: mayacorrigan.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Maya-CorriganBooks/305167769636032
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