Penned In

Contented employees make for a successful restaurant, which is why the County Seat’s crew goes on a quarterly out-of-office meeting. This time, the location is the Old Idaho Penitentiary near the Boise Foothills, a prison brimming with ghostly lore. The lock-in features actors role-playing as guards, fascinating prison stories . . . and an unscripted murder.

Who sentenced one of the faux guards to a very authentic death? Angie, her boyfriend, and the County Seat gang are locked in with a killer—excellent motivation for a little sleuthing. Between ghostly apparitions and flesh-and-blood suspects, Angie’s plate is full, but will her luck, and her life, hold out until the gates reopen at dawn?

Series: A Farm-To-Fork Mystery – Book #4.5
Author: Lynn Cahoon
Genre: Cozy Mystery /Culinary/Halloween
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Page Count: 92

Rating:

The “A Farm-To-Fork Mystery” restaurant series is one of my favorites. Having a new novella, Penned In, to read in between full-length books and just before Halloween, cements it as a fantastic series and a compelling, enjoyable read at any time of the year. Time spent with these books is never wasted or a disappointment. They are exquisite in every way.

Characters such as Angie, Ian, as well as the County Seat’s crew, are all well defined, easy to like, and keep readers on their toes. The premise of this story and, indeed, all of the books in this series are always easy to understand and follow. The restaurant doesn’t play a big part in this short book, but it is still seen via the crew who keep customers coming back. This is a Halloween, ghost, and team-building exercise for Angie and company, and readers will thrill at the spooky prison, ghostly history, and the murder mystery.

Suspects are limited to those who get locked into the penitentiary and the guards (actors) who keep the feel authentic. The victim was the biggest surprise, the killer was easy to figure out, but the motive was elusive for most of the book. Ms. Cahoon has a way of telling and unraveling a story that makes readers want to join in the investigation, eat at her restaurant, and solve a murder. It comes as no surprise when Angie and her faithful sidekicks find the killer just in time while they are in danger of becoming a piece of the prison’s infamy.

I am ecstatic to recommend Penned In to readers who love a good who-done-it, with engaging characters and situations, restaurant food and recipes that will have them running to the kitchen, and a storyteller who knows how to grab her audience’s attention and keeps it exactly where it needs to be.

Other novella’s short stories readers will enjoy include Leslie Meier’s haunting Halloween book in the “A Lucy Stone Mystery” or Lee Hollis’ culinary holiday book from the “A Hayley Powell Food & Cocktails Mystery”.

About the Author:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lynn Cahoon is an Idaho ex-pat. She grew up living the small-town life she now loves to write about. Currently, she’s living with her husband and two fur babies in a small historic town on the banks of the Mississippi River, where her imagination tends to wander.