< Back Guacamole Salad May 3, 2020 Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 0 Minutes Serves: 2 cups Tags: Dips and Sauces, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Vegan About the Recipe In last week's grocery order I forgot tortilla chips and ate this with a spoon! It's that good! Ingredients 1 ripe avocado 2 TBSP salsa (my favorite is Trader Joe’s Chunky Salsa) 1 scallion, chopped (grow them on the windowsill so you also have a few available) 1/2 chopped shallot or sweet onion 1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered or halved 1 cup sliced red and yellow sweet mini peppers 1/4 cup (about a handful) chopped parsley or cilantro Juice of 1 lime or about 1 TBSP Nelly & Joe Key Lime juice (it’s always in the fridge) 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper (add more if desired) Sprinkle of red pepper flakes or 1 tsp of Sriracha (also always in the fridge) Preparation In a medium bowl, lightly mash up avocado and salsa – leave chunks – don’t make it super smooth Add all the chopped vegetables, lime juice and salt, pepper Mix it into a chunky guacamole – it’s not the usual kind, but avocados are hard to find – and it’s still delicious! Serve as a side to the main protein or with a bowl of tortilla chips Previous Next

< Back Mariah Frederick Author of The Jane Prescott Mysteries November 21, 2019 Mariah Fredericks is the author of the Edgar-n ominated Y/A novel Crunch Time (. She was born and raised in New York City, where she lives today with her family. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in history and was the head copywriter for Book-of-the-Month Club for many years. I was delighted, upon picking up A Death of No Importance, to be swept into another world. In a simple, elegant writing style, Ms. Fredericks describes the life of a wealthy but troubled family in 1910 New York City. Jane Prescott is ladies’ maid to Charlotte Benchley. A gruesome murder disrupts what was to have been Charlotte’s engagement party to a wealthy society playboy and Jane realizes that she is in a unique position to ascertain the identity of the murderer. With the help of a friendly journalist, she searches for the truth. The second book, Death of a New American, picks up two years later, and Jane is now accompanying the family to Long Island, where their second daughter, Louise Bencley is to be married. The father of the groom is known to have vanquished an Italian mafia family, so when one of the family’s employees is found murdered, it is at first assumed to be a possible rev enge killing. But the friendly journalist who helped Jane in the first book again requests her help, and Jane used her impeccable manners, years of service, and understanding of human nature to once again reveal what actually happened. I look forward to the next book in the series, due out in 2020 Previous Next

Essays & Media I'm an Unreliable Witness If I were called to the witness stand, I’d immediately admit that I made up the three mysteries I wrote and someone else published, without really knowing a single thing about solving crimes. Read More Come On, Boomers! How is it possible that new writers, having just joined Medium last month, have already found close to 1000 followers? I’ve been here since last year and am nowhere near that! Here’s what I think: Read More To Authors Whose Characters Have Sex the Moment they Wake Up It is not natural when two actors (in a movie) or characters (in a book) open their eyes after a full night of sleep and immediately engage in passionate sexual intercourse. Read More Stepping Back in Time at Ye Olde Jewelry Shoppe Last night, we celebrated our anniversary at a much-loved Wisconsin supper club that was a time machine back to the 1970s. The music (think Carpenters or Captain and Tenille) was ‘musak’ of the 1970s, the décor was ‘hunting lodge’, and the food, including a canned, sliced pear as a garnish, could have been served at one of the restaurants I waitressed at in high school. Read More Drag Bingo in a Red State Yesterday, we drove two hours to a small town in Wisconsin where we’d found a charming old bed and breakfast run by a young couple who live with their toddler in the back of the house. Read More https://medium.com/@gpgottlieb/how-it-feels-to-inhale-muck-struggling-to-breathe-in-chicago-6-29-23-57697ecd8adc The air has been a sickening color since Monday. I’ve tried to stay inside because my face, head, and lungs ache and it’s hard to breathe. I wore a mask the few times I needed to leave our building. It felt weird to remove the mask when I went inside the grocery store, the physical therapy office, the senior home where my mother-in-law lives. Read More Ten Things That Make Me Happy Waking up. Because as I age, each day is a miracle. I survived horrible asthma and a surprise bout of cancer in my fifties, but all of us are surviving something these days. We joke about starting our conversations with “organ recitals” in which everyone lists their aches and pains before we can proceed with real conversations. Read More The Most Fabulous Historical Mysteries Set in American Cities I began hosting New Books in Literature, a podcast channel on the New Books Network, in 2018, and have interviewed over 180 authors so far. It was tough to choose just 5 top books, but in looking over all those interviews, I remembered how much I loved reading these books, all set in the United States long before the 21st century. Read More There Are Plenty of Other Evil Villains What about the Third Reich is so appealing that books and movies are still being made about it? And why do we keep wanting to hear more about Nazi lies, Nazi attacks on anyone they hate, and Nazi humiliation of those who don’t agree with them? Read More Thoughts of a Retired Assassin Back in the day, I knew not to compromise my colleagues by posting stunning views on Instagram like they do now. No photos of anything including gorgeous desserts, and everything I’d say would be too vague for anyone to figure out where I was going or where I’d been. You’ve got to play it cool and quiet in this business. Read More The Story of a New Garden We started at a family-owned garden center about 30 minutes east of my daughter’s Colorado home. I couldn’t get over the amount of development that’s taken place in the thirty odd years since I lived there, much of it “little boxes on a hillside and they’re all made out of ticky-tacky, and they all look just the same.” Read More https://medium.com/@gpgottlieb/my-traumatic-lyft-ride-8d1afa5ef20 My flight to Denver landed later than expected, nearly 10:00pm last night. I was tired because it’s an hour later in Chicago. It was a fifteen-minute wait for a rideshare. I sat in someone’s abandoned wheelchair watching a sudden rainfall (luckily, DIA’s pick up area is covered). I scrolled through Instagram, did a couple of Spanish lessons on Duolingo, breathed the mountain air. Read More How to Stay Married for the First Thirty Years We walked around the charming city of Turin for three full days, often holding hands and feeling blessed. It’s a special vacation, and we’re enjoying every moment. Love the architecture, the cobbled streets, the cacophony of languages, the murals. Read More The Train from Nice to Paris: On Body Odor, Being Invisible, and Doing the Best We Can Just got to our hotel, and it’s pouring outside, so we’re resting a bit. Today, we rode into Paris on the train from Eze, an enchanting village on the Riviera. Read More Traveling and Eating in the Beautiful Piedmont Region No question about it — it’s heavenly to be in this sunshine-filled area of rolling hills edged by the distant, not always visible Alps. Read More Load More

< Back Apple Banana Chocolate Cake (gluten free) November 4, 2019 Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 35 Minutes Serves: 6-8 Slices of Cake Tags: Baking, Gluten Free, Cakes & Pies & Icing About the Recipe If you happen to have someone who doesn’t enjoy the taste of banana, this cake cleverly masks it with chocolate, decaf coffee crystals, vanilla, and cinnamon. With only 1/2 cup of brown sugar, it is still as sweet and soft as cakes with far more processed sugar. The sweetness comes from both the apple and the banana, and there is also no extra fat, aside from what’s in the chocolate chips. The flax and chia seed give the cake additional protein and other nutritional delights in addition to holding it together when I make this into a vegan cake (or let’s be honest, when I don’t have enough eggs for both making breakfast and baking). The recipe is going to be in my second book, SMOTHERED: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery Ingredients 1 small-medium Gala or Honeycrisp apple, seeded 1/3 cup water 2 eggs (leave out if you prefer vegan cake – it’ll be fudgier and more dense) 1 TBSP instant decaf coffee powder or crystals 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar ½ cup brown sugar ¼ cup unsweetened baking cocoa 1 ½ cup gluten free (or all-purpose flour) 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp ground flax seed (optional) 1 tsp chia seed (optional) 1 tsp pure vanilla extract ¼ tsp salt ¾ cup chocolate chips Preparation Cut banana and apple into pieces and blend In processor with water and eggs, until smooth Add all other ingredients except chocolate chips and blend smooth Add the chips and pulse just twice or three times until they’re incorporated Pour into a greased and sugared bread pan Bake for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees Cool before removing from pan and serving Previous Next

< Back Elsa Hart Author of The Li Du Mysteries June 27, 2019 Elsa Hart’s first mystery, Jade Dragon Mountain, was set in southwest early 18th century China, and featured Li Du, a sleuth. scholar and former Imperial librarian. Li Du has been exiled from Beijing for ostensibly consorting with the emperor’s enemies. He heads to the Tibetan border, to a city nestled in the foothills of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, where his cousin is magistrate. While the city is preparing for the huge honor of a visit from the emperor, a Jesuit astronomer is found dead. Li Du, in helping his cousin with the investigation, puts his own life in peril. The next time we meet the now independent scholar Li Du, he is travelling with a caravan to Lhasa. They are detoured to a hidden valley where they find a monk sitting in contemplation on a bridge. The monk turns out to be dead, apparently a suicide. A strange symbol is painted on his chest. A storm whips across the valley and the caravan must stay with the local lord until the weather turns. Li Du learns that the dead monk was a reclusive painter whose family is not surprised by his death. But there are questions. Why did the caravan leader detour to this valley? As he pieces together the evidence that the monk was murdered, Li Du is again confronted by his own past, and comes to understand why he must return home. Next, Li Du returns to Beijing to seek answers about the execution of his mentor. His search for the truth is interrupted by the discovery of two bodies; the wife of a factory owner and a man purported to have been her lover. While the official story is that this was a crime of passion, Li Du suspects something more sinister behind the murders. His past gets in the way and he is threatened with even more punishment than what he’s endured. City of Ink, the third in Elsa Hart’s Li Du mystery series, is, like her first two mysteries, beautifully written and richly detailed. Hart’s characters form a cross-section of 18th century humanity, but the thieves, duplicitous government officials, cunning travelers, and money-grubbing businessmen would be right at home in the 21st. Elsa Hart was born in Rome, Italy, but her earliest memories are of Moscow, where her family lived until 1991. Since then she has lived in the Czech Republic, the U.S.A., and China. She earned a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. She wrote her first novel, Jade Dragon Mountain, in the mountain borderlands of Southwest China, where her husband was doing botanical research. Can’t wait for the next Li Du Mystery! Previous Next

< Back Barbara Louise Mertz AKA Elizabeth Peters October 24, 2019 Barbara Louise Mertz (1927 – 2013), was an Illinois-born author with a University of Chicago PhD (1952) in Egyptology who wrote under the pseudonyms Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels. She was named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986 and Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar Awards in 1998. She lived in Maryland until her death. In addition to the Amelia Peabody (Egyptian archaeology) mysteries, she wrote four in the Jacqueline Kirby series about an American librarian who became a bestselling author, and seven mysteries about Vicky Bliss, an art historian. I always read at least three of an author’s works before choosing it for my weekly Must-Read Juicy Mystery post and have just finished the final (#20) of the Amelia Peabody series. Peabody is a trained archaeologist who praises her husband, the dashing archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson, but is just as capable of spending a day at an archaeological dig while also managing the household servants and raising children. The Emersons are often in danger, targeted by assassins or upended by the exploits of their employees, other family members, or their children. Merz was inspired by, among other things, intriguing artifacts, dig sites and interesting historical events to write the Peabody mysteries. These are books to drown in: Peabody and Emerson return to Egypt after hearing about the discovery of a royal tomb in Luxor, they search the vast desert for a lost English aristocrat and his wife, or a stranger entices them with a ring from the tomb of an Egyptian queen. Merz’s final book, The Painted Queen, was based on a famous bust of Nefertiti that was discovered and taken out of Egypt sometime after 1912. There is still some confusion and disagreement about how the bust was removed and how Egypt was robbed of one of its historical treasures. The book was completed after her death (using Mertz’s outline and meticulous research notes) by her friend and fellow mystery writer Joan Hess (author of the Claire Malloy and Maggody Mystery series). The two women had met at a mystery convention thirty years before. Previous Next

< Back Georgette Heyer Author of various mystery novels August 1, 2019 One of my literary heroes is Georgette Heyer (London 1902 – 1974), who never appeared in public or gave an interview. She was a bestselling author for over fifty years without spending a single minute building a social media presence when she could have been writing. Maybe if I’m jealous, I should just sit down and write excellent books, at least one every year, that people will continue to read a half century after I’m gone. She wrote her first book at seventeen, and it is still selling, but she was known to be extremely private. When someone would ask about herself, Heyer would refer the person to her books, and most of what is known about her comes from her correspondence ( I skimmed through her bio). She was known for her romances and is considered by some to be the inventor of the Regency Romance genre (which inspired Jane Austen, among others). There was a period of many years during which she wrote one romance and one thriller every year, but I am particularly interested in her Country House, Inspector Hemingway, and Inspector Hannasyde mysteries (12 in all). They are terribly droll and describe period dress, behavior and standards in great detail. The first three (I look forward to reading through the rest) take place in 30’s London and evoke a bygone age of wealth and prestige. The nuances of visiting a manor house, dress, comportment, dining, and after-dinner entertainment are delightfully precise. Readers can almost see the characters coming to life in all their 30’s finery. In terms of Juicy Must-Read Mysteries, Georgette Heyer is pretty high on the list: Neville opened his eyes, and looked at her in undisguised horror. “Oh, my God, the girl thinks I did it!” “No, I don’t. I’ve got an open mind on the subject,” said Sally bluntly. “If you did it, you must have had a darned good reason, and you have my vote.” “Have I?” Neville said, awed. “And what about my second victim?” “As I see it,” replied Sally, “the second victim — we won’t call him yours just yet — knew too much about the first murder, and had to be disposed of. Unfortunate, of course, but, given the first murder, I quite see it was inevitable.” A Blunt Instrument, Georgette Heyer Previous Next

< Back Christopher Fowler Author of The Bryant and May Mysteries March 9, 2021 “Do you enjoy reading?” “I enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey.” Bryant quailed at the thought. “That’s not really reading, is it? More like staring at an assortment of words.” “It’s very popular.” “So is taking photographs of your dinner for Facebook, but that doesn’t mean it adds to the total sum of human knowledge.” This is the kind of passage that makes me question those reviewers who claim that Christopher Fowler’s writing is just a jumble of words. His stories, his characters, and his murders are all complex and nuanced. His writing is sometimes abstruse, and one is occasionally reminded that Brits tend to have much more refined vocabularies than, say, Americans. I can understand some readers being stymied by Fowler’s clever dialogue, snappy retorts, and sly Briticisms, but I coasted along in a (London) fog of pleasure. I don’t enjoy horrendous murders, and usually dislike blood and gore. But I also dislike when murders are described as if the victims are only cartoon versions of humans so as not to disturb our sense of decorum. Sometimes it feels like we’re being spared the icky details of what death looks like. Fowler doesn’t let the reader get away with any kind of laziness – he makes it clear when a victim suffers and when it happens too quickly for suffering to occur. He also dumps a number of characters on us and we’d better just follow along if we expect to understand London’s irritating police administration, the professional rivalries between departments, and the lack of esteem in which the Peculiar Crimes Unit is held by everyone not in it. We also need to get past our confusion about why someone as old and dotty as Bryant is still employed as a public servant – although the brilliance of his deductions is made clear again and again. Those of us who approached the millennium as fully formed adults are probably all cheering him on against that most universally accepted prejudice: Ageism. Not even a bout of unexplained dementia stops him from figuring out who did it. Previous Next

< Back Charles Finch Author of The Charles Lynch Mysteries February 14, 2022 Charles Finch is a literary critic and author. Born in 1980 (!!) in New York City, he was educated at Yale University and Merton College, Oxford. The first book in his Charles Lynch Mystery Series came out in 2007 and was nominated for an Agatha and chosen as one of Library Journal’s best books. Having loved six of these Charles Lynch novels, I’ve gotta say that I never expected to fall in love again, but I’d run off to England’s lake district with either of the Charleses. Finch gives a beautifully detailed portrayal of mid-nineteenth century England, and his writing is pitch perfect. Detective Charles Lynch is thoughtful, insightful, and competent, but he knows that he’s worth little without his wife, family, and friends. I just emerged from devouring The Last Passenger, and as usual, was immersed in the tiny details of Victorian society’s requirements, characters’ distinct personalities, and Lynch’s visits, meals, and meanderings. I wonder how much of himself the author put into his protagonist, the similarly named Charles Lynch. Charles Finch is on my list of authors-I’d-most-like-to-meet – and it turns out that he also lives in Chicago! Chronological list of Charles Lynch mysteries: A Beautiful Blue Death 2007 The September Society 2008 The Fleet Street Murders 2009 A Stranger in Mayfair 2010 A Burial at Sea 2011 A Death in the Small Hours 2012 An Old Betrayal 2013 The Laws of Murder 2014 Home By Nightfall 2015 The Inheritance 2016 Gone Before Christmas 2017 The Woman in the Water 2018 The Vanishing Man 2019 The Last Passenger 2020 An Extravagant Death 2021 Previous Next

< Back Catherine Louisa Pirkis Author of Disappeared From Her Home November 10, 2020 Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1839-1910) wrote a total of 14 novels in the years spanning between 1877 and 1894, and contributed to many journals. Her first novel, Disappeared from her Home, was the first mystery written by a female author and starting a female heroine. It was serialized in The Ludgate Monthly in 1893-93 and followed the ‘casebook’ format popularized by authors like Sherlock Holmes. In May of 1893, her stories about Loveaday Brooke began to be featured in The May Mgazines edition of the Glasgow Herald. The commentary included comments about how Miss Brooke might not be as good at catching a husband as she is at catching criminals. After The Adventures of Loveday Brooke was published, Catherine Louisa Pirkis began to focus her attention on animal rights and ceased to publish. Previous Next

< Back M.C. Beaton Author of The Hamish Macbeth Mysteries July 16, 2019 M.C. Beaton got the idea for Hamish Macbeth while on a fishing holiday in Scotland. This charming series is set in two fictional villages in the Scottish Highlands, an area known for astounding landscapes, extreme weather, and honorable people. Except for the ones who are busily committing crimes. But in his lackadaisical way, clear-headed Hamish Macbeth always finds them. Sergeant Macbeth prefers to avoid any signs of recognition, including promotion. His only ambition, aside from walking his two dogs (and later a sort of domesticated wildcat that shocks everyone who sees it), seems to be to prevent Chief Inspector Blair from closing the Lochdubh police station. There’s a little bit of romance, nothing long term, although M.C. Beaton started the series in 1985 and has published (so far, I think) 28 Hamish Macbeth mysteries. It’s worthwhile to start with the first in the series: Death of a Gossip (most of the titles start with ‘Death of’), which is set up like a classical mystery, but jump in anywhere to read about how Officer Macbeth solves murders while dealing with silly superiors, muddled/lying/confused villagers or visitors, and quick-changing, unforgiving weather. The weather is like an ongoing character in the series, sometimes mild and sunny, other times scary and violent. There are always plenty of possible suspects, and sometimes bad guys try to take out poor Hamish, but he always figures out that the beautiful dame is trying to slip him a mickey, or he manages to sift through the lies to find a kernel of truth. There are an awful lot of gorgeous young women, as is to be expected in a mystery, but M.C. Beaton seems more willing than most writers to let even the most adorable of them get whacked. The author is also willing to show Hamish’s flaws; his laziness, his disregard for higher-ups, and his conviction that he always knows better than everyone around him. His thoughts are sometimes about who is aggravating him or what he’s going to have for dinner, and he’s occasionally guilty of missing signals. Sometimes his missed signals lead to more murder. I love reading a Hamish Macbeth story during the summer, when violent snowstorms and blizzards seem mythical and distant. Previous Next

< Back Lindsey Davis Author of The Marcus Didius Falco and Flavia Albia Mysteries December 25, 2021 Lindsey Davi s was born in Birmingham, England, studied at Oxford, and worked as a civil servant for 13 years. After a romantic novel she’d written was runner-up for the 1985 Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Prize, she became a full-time writer. She wrote twenty delightful novels about an informer and all-around solver of problems (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries). Set in ancient Rome, her protagonist is delightfully human, happy when his hair looks good and disappointed in himself when he screws up. I loved his courtship of Helena Justina, the senator’s daughter who becomes his wife and the mother of his children. Now Ms. Davis is writing about Marcus and Helena’s British-born adopted daughter, Flavia Alvia, who solves murders when she isn’t taking care of her busy household, supervising slaves and planning family gatherings. These are action packed stories set in a violent society, but I loved spending cold winter afternoons back in Davis’s Ancient Rome. Ms. Davis won the 2011 Cartier Diamond Dagger for her outstanding contribution to the mystery genre. She was honorary president of the Classical Association and is a lifetime member of the Council of the Society of Authors. Previous Next