Pop Culture Princess

Pop Culture Princess
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Friday, November 08, 2019

Some cozy mystery dishes to add to your Thanksgiving fictional feast

As Thanksgiving is on the holiday horizon once again, I do worry that it's getting ignored by those who see this heartwarming celebration as merely a speed bump on the Christmas highway.

With that in mind, I thought it would be good to highlight some Turkey Day themed reading and what better genre to do some one stop shopping in than cozy mysteries? Even if the series in question is not food related, there's still a good amount of seasonal sleuthing to be found here.

 So here are a few books that should pair up nicely with your traditional Thanksgiving meal, before and after dinner, to get you right into the savory spirit of things.

 To start, our main course is Murder of a Botoxed Blonde by Denise Swanson from her Scumble River books. School psychologist Skye Denison is less than thrilled by the prospect of spending her Thanksgiving at a health spa, where tofu turkey is on the menu. However, urged by her best friend Trixie(plus the chance to avoid playing hostess to a swarm of relatives), she decides to give the experience a decent try.

As the over emphasis on beauty treatments makes Skye feel uncomfortable, her stay becomes more tense when one of the glamorous guests is discovered drowned to death in a meant to be relaxing mudbath.

Teaming up with her friends to solve the case, Skye hopes to have a happy Thanksgiving with no more empty place settings at the table. Sounds like festive fun, although the prospect of tofu turkey is scary enough as it is to a meat eater like me:



Next up is Krista Davis' The Diva Runs Out of Thyme, the first in the Domestic Diva mysteries and the lady of the title is Sophie Winston who is planning some payback with a killer recipe for stuffing.

She intends no actual harm to her longtime rival in life and love, Natasha Smith, but the chance to earn a win against her in the upcoming Stupendous Stuffing contest this Thanksgiving is too good to pass up.

Unfortunately, the discovery of a dead body and superficial evidence tying her to the crime is putting a major crimp in Sophie's holiday plans. Can she find the true killer in time for the contest or will orange be the new black for Sophie's future Thanksgiving plans?

Granted, I'm not a stuffing fan but even I know the importance of that side dish to the occasion and no doubt this tasty read has a delicious recipe for both the stuffing as well as a solution to Sophie's situation:


Heading towards dessert, Leslie Meier serves up Turkey Day Murder for local part time reporter Lucy Stone in the Maine town of Tinker's Cover.

Lucy has quite a lot on her plate as it is with the holidays fast approaching, including preparing the classic pumpkin pie that she's known for.

Yet, when a dispute at a town meeting leads to the demise of one of the advocates for a project beneficial to the Native American community, she finds herself putting aside her apron for some Lois Lane action.

Yes, the title is Turkey Day Murder but since Lucy's pumpkin pie plays a prominent part in her meal plans, I felt that this was better off in the dessert category(plus pumpkin pie is my favorite Thanksgiving treat and worth fighting for on any occasion):


For our flavorful finale, Joanne Fluke and her feisty heroine Hannah Swenson team up to give us a Raspberry Danish Murder and yes, this story is set around Thanksgiving time.

Hannah is not in a festive mood, due to the disappearance of her new husband Ross(yes, I know that she didn't choose either Mike or Norman, not yet at least) and trying to distract herself from worrying by focusing on making as many Thanksgiving themed treats as she can.

While the customers at Hannah's bakery The Cookie Jar certainly appreciate her efforts, she needs more than a new way to make raspberry danish to occupy her anxious thoughts. When one of Ross' co-workers is fatally poisoned, Hannah sees this investigation as a way to find her missing husband and get some of the answers that she truly deserves here.

While raspberry danish is not a typical Thanksgiving dessert, I'm sure that any raspberry treat could be worked into a holiday menu somehow. After all, that shade of red does have that autumn feeling indeed:


I do hope that some of these titles inspire some Thanksgiving related reading and help to bring about more love for the holiday. While Christmas and the other winter festivities are crowd pleasers to be sure, Thanksgiving is a time to not just make a big meal and watch parades and/or sports on TV.

It's a time to think about the good things in your life and yes, that might be hard to do even under the best of circumstances(plus, the very troubling times we live in right now) but taking a moment to do just that can make all the difference in your outlook for what lies ahead.

Everybody needs a little time for comfort and closeness, which is what Thanksgiving is all about, in my opinion anyway. If a good book or any other entertainment can make that day a little better, that's a true Thanksgiving blessing in the best sense of the term:


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