The Chocolate Bear Burglary - A Chocoholic Mystery

Informationen zum Autor JoAnna Carl is the pseudonym of a multipublished mystery writer. She spent more than twenty-five years in the newspaper business, working as a reporter, feature writer, editor and columnist. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and also studied in the OU Professional Writing Program. She lives in Oklahoma but spends much of her summer at a cottage on Lake Michigan near several communities similar to the fictional town of Warner Pier. Klappentext This second Chocoholic mystery finds chocolatiers Lee McKinney and her Aunt Nettie awaiting the tourists that a teddy bear promotion will bring Warner Pier. To help decorate the store! Gail! an antiques dealer! lends them a collection of valuable chocolate molds. But when the shop is broken into! Gail is dead--and the prime suspect is Gail's teenage stepson. Lee tries to clear the boy's name--but in doing so she disturbs some family secrets. Original. Excerpt from Chapter 1 The bear wasn’t cuddly or cute. His eyes were squinty and mean, and his face was grimy. A harness – or was it a muzzle? – was around his snout, and he looked as if he resented it. In fact, he looked like he might take a bite out of anybody who tried to take a bite out of him. “I don’t care how much milk chocolate you load into that mold,” I said. “That bear’s never going to be a teddy.” The other bear molds looked dirty, too. The metal clamps that held the backs and fronts together were all askew, and their silver-colored metal seemed to be all tarnished. All of them looked as if they needed to be soaked in soapy water and scrubbed with a brush. I wasn’t impressed with the cleanliness of the dozen antique chocolate molds Aunt Nettie was arranging on the shelves of TenHuis Chocolade. “I’d be glad to wash all of these,” I said. “Wash them!” Aunt Nettie teetered on the top step of her kitchen step stool. “You don’t wash them!” “But they’re dirty looking!” “Those are chocolate stains.” “Naturally, since they’re chocolate molds. But you don’t let the modern-day molds sit around dirty. Wouldn’t the antiques look better if they were cleaned up?” Aunt Nettie clasped the mean-looking bear to the bib of the apron that covered her solid bosom and looked so horrified that I could tell my suggestion was making her wavy white hair stand on end, right through the holes in the white food-service hairnet she wore. But she spoke patiently. “Lee, the plastic molds we use today won’t rust. These antique ones are tin plated, and they can rust. So the normal way to maintain them – back when they were in general use – was to put them away without washing them. The coating of chocolate was like oiling them. It kept them from rusting. When the old-time chocolatiers started on their next batch of chocolates – maybe a year later – then they’d wash them.” “But since we don’t plan to use these, but just display them…” “No, Lee. The chocolate traces show that the molds are authentic.” She held out the mold of the mean looking bear. “This one has been washed, and it wasn’t dried properly. It’s rusted already. I pointed that out to Gail Hess when she brought the molds by so she’d know we didn’t do it. Washing them would be like putting a coat of acrylic on a genuine Chippendale table.” I didn’t argue. My aunt, Jeanette TenHuis, is an expert on chocolate and is the boss of TenHuis Chocolade. I’d had to be told that lots of chocolate people use the European spelling – “mould” with a “u” – for the forms they use for making chocolates, and reserve the American “mold” to refer to that stuff along the hem of the shower curtain. No, I’m not just the bookkeeper – business manager, if you want to sound fancy. I pay the bills for the butter, cream, chocolate, and flavorings Aunt Nettie uses to make the most delicious bonbons, truffles, and molded chocolates ever placed ...

Product details

• Authors: JoAnna Carl
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 05.11.2002
• EAN: 9780451207470
• ISBN: 978-0-451-20747-0
• No. of pages: 240
• Dimensions: 114 mm x 178 mm x 19 mm
• Series: Chocoholic Mysteries; Chocoholic Mystery; Chocoholic Mystery
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense > Crime fiction, thrillers, espionage