Join the Snowden family at their annual clambake in the heart of Maine, where secrets abound and mysteries lurk around every corner. In this newest release from Barbara Ross, follow along with Julia and Jacqueline as the mother-daughter duo tackle solving murders both new and old. No reading experience is complete without a sweet treat, so whip up a batch of delightful Ginger Lemon Thins and settle in for an afternoon of reading and snacking.
Ginny Merrill’s neighbor Janice Holcomb serves these cookies to Julia and Jacqueline when they visit Ginny’s condo in Portland, Maine. The cookies turn out to be all Julia gets for lunch, and she puts away quite a few of them. Good thing they’re delicious!
- ⅔ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- In a large bowl, beat together butter, lemon zest, ginger, vanilla extract, baking soda, and salt with a mixer at medium speed until combined.
- In another large bowl, beat together sugar, egg, and lemon juice with a mixer at medium speed until thick and pale, 3 to 4 minutes. Add to butter mixture along with flour, beating at low speed just until combined.
- Refrigerate dough for 4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 400°. Line several rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Shape dough into ¾-inch balls. Place balls 1½ inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using the bottom of a glass covered with a damp cloth, flatten each ball to a ⅛-inch thickness. (If dough sticks, dip bottom of glass and cloth in water.)
- Bake until cookie edges are golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Serving up mouthwatering shellfish, the Snowden Family Clambake has become a beloved institution in Busman’s Harbor, Maine. But when new clues rise to the surface five years after the disappearance of Julia Snowden’s mother’s friend, the family business shifts to sleuthing.
Julia and her mother, Jacqueline, have come to the exclusive summer colony of Chipmunk Island to attend a memorial service for Jacqueline’s old friend Ginny, who’s been officially declared dead half a decade after she went out for her daily swim in the harbor and was never seen again. But something seems fishy at the service—especially with the ladies of the Wednesday Club. As Julia and Jacqueline begin looking into Ginny’s cold case, a present-day murder stirs the pot, and mother and daughter must dive into the deep end to get to the bottom of both mysteries.
Barbara Ross is the author of the Maine Clambake Mysteries and the Jane Darrowfield Mysteries. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. Barbara’s Maine Clambake novellas are included along with stories by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis in holiday anthologies from Kensington Publishing. Barbara and her husband live in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.MaineClambakeMysteries.com.
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