June 5, 2017
In Crawford’s charming 13th culinary mystery featuring the Simmons sisters (after 2016’s Catered Tea Party), Bernie (fearless on stilettos and creaky balconies) strong-arms Libby (secret zodiac believer and weight-worrier) into catering Darius Witherspoon’s Halloween gala at the posh Berkshire Arms in their hometown of Longley, N.Y., despite nightmare memories of a gig there when it was the Peabody School and an alum’s head rolled down the steps. Darius’s wife, Penelope, disappears ominously, but she loves Halloween, so he says the party’s on—and then makes his entrance crashing through a window, hanged. The sisters’ nemesis, police chief Lucy Broadbent, calls it an accident, but Bernie and Libby smell murder. When Penelope is also discovered freshly hanged, the sisters risk their own necks to discover who killed whom when. Recurring characters, especially the sisters’ widowed father, retired police chief Sean, add depth and humor. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency.