Title: Hash Browns & Homicide
Author: Karen McSpade
Date: 2021
Publisher: Karen McSpace
Quote: "As a newly promoted detective, I didn't know how to read the chief's tone, but I sensed his urgency."
Remember those TV serials where, although everybody knew the frankly silly premise, no episode was complete without a quick reminder of what had supposedly put the unlikely characters into their unlikely situation? This short whimsical story is that sort of introduction. There is a plot, but the story is not told in the usual way. Its purpose is to show you what kind of twenty-something Piper Sandstone is before you dig into the mystery novels.
In this prequel, the question is not whodunit but whether Piper can get him to incriminate himself, and the real purpose of the story is to explain how a tough Chicago police woman came to be in the fictional small town of Savory. Because they had to get her out of Chicago, that's why. It's a good thing Piper--decent, clever, and also young, pretty, and healthy--just dumped her boyfriend, because her one little mistake and the combination of corruption and incompetence for which her city is famous may keep her from ever being safe in her home city again.
And as a bonus...does the phrase "hash brown casserole" appeal to you? This book contains two recipes for it, one gluten-free and veg-rich and wait a minute, nature intended celiacs to love spinach but it soaks up glyphosate like a sponge, the other a dieter's disaster ("cream of" anything canned soup is not gluten-free) of potatoes plus calories. If I ever dare to eat spinach again I'd try doing the eggs-and-veg casserole without the cheese.
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