A Side Dish of Death

(Urban Tails Pet Shop Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Setting – Connecticut
Publisher: Beyond the Page Publishing
(February 25, 2025)
Print length: 257 pages

When a celebrity chef is murdered, Shell McMillan has to cook up a plan to trap the killer of a man for all seasonings . . .

With adopt-a-cat month in full swing in Fox Hollow, pet shop owner Shell McMillan decides that hosting a night of murder mystery dinner theater will be a fun way to raise funds for the cause. But she didn’t realize that the celebrity chef she’d hired for the event would turn out to be a tyrannical snob, or that her scoundrel of an ex-fiancé would turn up with his own shady agenda. Still, the show must go on, and as the lighthearted plot on-stage unfolds, the scene off-stage turns decidedly darker when the chef is found murdered.

Rather than question an entire roomful of possible suspects, Shell determines that looking into the victim’s past will lead her to the culprit more quickly. What she finds is that the chef had left behind a disreputable past and a trail of disgruntled people, including a long string of women he’d wronged and a host of others who may have been out for revenge. But as Shell closes in on the killer, the killer is closing in on her. And she’s discovering that while too many cooks can spoil the broth, being a murderer’s next target can really ruin your appetite . . .

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The wind howled loudly outside the Fox Hollow Inn, lending a macabre touch to the murder mystery skit that was being enacted. Suddenly there was a loud crash of thunder and all the lights winked out, leaving the room in total blackness. I hadn’t given the signal, so the power outage had to be a result of the storm. I started to inch my way slowly forward, blinking as my eyes gradually became accustomed to the darkness. There was a loud wail, more of a yowl actually and then the lights came back on. We heard another loud wail, this time from the hallway. “That sounds like a cat,” someone yelled out.

I sucked in a breath. “Dahlia!” I cried out. No sooner had I uttered the cat’s name than there came another loud crash of thunder. The side door to the room suddenly banged open and a dark, furry form streaked inside and whizzed past us. “Dahlia,” I cried again. I moved forward and reached for her, but Dahlia was too fast for me. She eluded my grasp and sped back out the side entrance. I didn’t’ hesitate but went right into the hallway after her. No sign of her. I turned left and went around the corner, and then I saw her. She was on her hind legs, pawing almost frantically at a door at the very end of the hall. I moved cautiously forward and said in a soothing tone, “Here, Dahlia. Everything’s going to be all right.”

The cat turned its head to look at me, and then let out another loud wail. She pawed again at the door, her nails scraping against the metal. I inched closer. “What’s wrong, Dahlia? Is something in there?”

Dahlia threw back her head and let out another bloodcurdling wail. “Ow-ORRRR!”

A knot started to form in my stomach, and I felt the hairs at the back of my neck start to rise. I stepped forward and gripped the door handle. It swung inward at my touch, and Dahlia darted inside ahead of me. I stepped inside and paused, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness. I felt along the wall and my fingers found a light switch. I flicked it on and the room was instantly flooded with bright light. I gave a quick look around. The room appeared to be some sort of storage area. There was steel shelving on the walls, filled to the brim with boxes. There was a pile of them in the middle of the tiled floor, and Dahlia jumped on top of them. She stood there for a moment, back arched, and then she jumped off. Her motion caused the boxes to tumble sideways, revealing the body that lay underneath….one that definitely wasn’t part of the show…

While Toni Lotempio does not commit – or solve – murders in real life, she has no trouble doing it on paper. Her lifelong love of mysteries began early on when she was introduced to her first Nancy Drew mystery at age 10 – The Secret in the Old Attic. She and her cat pen the Nick and Nora mystery series originally from Berkley Prime Crime and now with Beyond the Page Publishing. They also write the Urban Tails Pet Shop Mysteries and the Tiffany Austin Food Blogger Mysteries, also available from Beyond the Page. A new series, Cozy Bookshop Mysteries, debuts from Severn House in July. Catch up with them at ROCCO’s blog, www.catsbooksmorecats.blogspot.com, or her website, www.tclotempio.net.