Today I’m featuring Daryl Wood Gerber’s Murder on the Page, the first novel in the Literary Dining mysteries series.

The author says –

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a genuinely top-notch party must be in want of a theme. Allie Catt, caterer and personal chef in the beautiful mountain community of Asheville, North Carolina, has devised a winning formula by using her clients’ favorite books as inspiration. Her first themed event is based on Pride and Prejudice (Allie’s cat, Darcy, approves), and it’s so popular that soon she has grand ideas for future parties based on Rebecca, The Great Gatsby, Babette’s Feast and more.

Business is booming, and a rival catering company is fuming. But there’s a sting in the tale when the aunt of one of Allie’s clients and best friends, Tegan, is murdered. Tegan is the victim’s sole heir, and quickly becomes the main suspect. Allie has no doubts about her friend’s innocence, but how to prove it?

Once again, her love of literature comes to the rescue, and with some guidance from her favorite fictional detectives, including Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, Allie sifts through the clues.

With a little luck—and the kind of pluck that would make Elizabeth Bennett proud—she may be able to stop a killer from serving up a second course of murder . . .

Here’s a short excerpt from the book:

“By the way,” Lillian said around a mouthful of scone, “one of my regular customers came in late yesterday for a fitting. Celia Harrigan. Do you know her? I don’t think she’s much of a reader. She lives on Marigold’s street in a yellow Craftsman with white trim. Anyway, Celia saw someone in a hoodie sneaking around Graham Wynn’s house a week ago Saturday, during the day. She wasn’t sure if it was a man or a woman. The reason I mention it is because she said the person was acting sketchy, and she wondered if, in view of what happened to Marigold, the person might have been staking out Marigold’s house, since, you know, she lived across the street from Graham.”

“That’s a leap,” I said.

“Perhaps.” She polished off her scone. “You know about Marigold’s jewelry collection, don’t you?”

Marigold was wealthy, but she’d never lavished herself with gifts or spent her wealth on cruises. However, she’d loved antique jewelry. Invariably, she would wear her prized diamond necklace, but over the years she’d invested in rings and bracelets and brooches. At dinner parties, she would show off her jewelry, like the Bulgari serpent bracelet she’d found at an estate sale or a Georgian-style trembling floral brooch—the one Chloe had referred to earlier—which featured over a hundred hand-cut diamonds. As far as I knew, Marigold stored all of her jewelry in a safety-deposit box at the bank, not at home. I thought of what Celia Harrigan told Lillian. What if the lurker had actually been Graham in disguise, and he was spying on Marigold? What if he had been keeping watch, waiting for a time when she might go to the bank to retrieve her jewelry? And what if he saw her slip a valuable piece into the envelope marked Private and Confidential? 

Readers can learn more about Daryl Wood Gerber by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Goodreads, BookBub, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok pages.

The novel is available online at the following retailers:

AMAZON    BARNES AND NOBLE     BOOKSHOP.ORG    KOBO      MYSTERIOUS GALAXY

Daryl Wood Gerber: Daryl is the Agatha Award-winning and nationally bestselling author of the Literary Dining Mysteries, the Fairy Garden Mysteries and the Cookbook Nook Mysteries. As Avery Aames, she penned the popular Cheese Shop Mysteries. In addition, Daryl writes suspense including the well-received The Son’s Secret, Girl on the Run, and the popular Aspen Adams suspense novels. Recently Daryl, who loves a challenge, published a Christmas romance, Hope for the Holidays.  Fun Tidbit: as an actress, Daryl appeared in “Murder, She Wrote.” She loves to cook, garden, read, and walk her frisky Goldendoodle. Also she has been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.