Valerie Burns welcomes you to New Bison, Michigan, in her cozy new mystery series, The Baker Street mysteries. As readers jump into Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder, they’ll love indulging in these sweet and nutty thumbprint cookies.
- 1 cup butter, softened
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
- Almond Icing (recipe follows)
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar with a mixer at medium-high speed until smooth and creamy. Beat in vanilla extract and salt. With mixer at low speed, gradually beat in flour until dough comes together. (It will be dry, but don’t panic.) Beat in nuts until combined.
- Portion dough and roll into 1½-inch balls. Place dough balls 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet. Press a thumb into centers of dough balls to create an indentation.
- Bake until cookies are lightly browned around edges, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
- Spoon approximately ¼ teaspoon Almond Icing into centers of cookies. Let icing set slightly before serving.
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 1½ teaspoons almond extract
- Food coloring (if you’re feeling really fancy)
- In a small bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar, milk, and almond extract until smooth. If using food coloring, tint icing to desired hue. Use immediately.
In this delectable new cozy mystery series, social media maven Maddy Montgomery’s perfectly ’grammable life has come undone, and she’s #StartingOver in a tiny town with one giant problem—a killer on the loose.
When Maddy Montgomery’s groom is a no-show to their livestream wedding, it’s a disaster that no amount of filtering can fix. But a surprise inheritance offers a chance to regroup and rebrand—as long as Maddy is willing to live in her late Great-Aunt Octavia’s house in New Bison, Michigan, for a year, running her bakery and caring for a 200-pound English Mastiff named Baby.
Maddy doesn’t bake, and her Louboutins aren’t made for walking giant dogs around Lake Michigan; but the locals are friendly, and the scenery is beautiful. With help from her aunt’s loyal friends, aka The Baker Street Irregulars, Maddy feels ready to tackle any challenge, including Octavia’s award-winning cake recipes. That is, until New Bison’s mayor is fatally stabbed, and Maddy’s fingerprints are found on the knife.
Something strange is going on in New Bison. It seems Aunt Octavia had her suspicions, too, but Maddy’s going to need a whole lot more than a trending hashtag to save her reputation—and her life.
Valerie Burns is the acclaimed author of screenplays, children’s books, and cozy mysteries, including the Dog Club Mysteries, the RJ Franklin Mysteries, and the Mystery Bookshop Series as V. M. Burns. Born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, Valerie currently resides in Tennessee with her poodles. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Dog Writers Association of America, Thriller Writers International, and a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime. She can be found online at vmburns.com.
This needs a link to where to buy the book! Looks like fun.