The fourth book in the Crochet Mystery series, 2010

I’d like to thank Sandy Harding for her continued enthusiasm and great editing. Thanks to everyone at Berkley Prime Crime for the great cover and all their efforts on my behalf. None of this would have happened without my agent, Jessica Faust.

Thank you, Howard Marx, M.D., for the quick answers to all my medical questions. Appellate Defender Judy Libby keeps the lawyer information coming. Roberta Martia is my crochet tester and chief cheerleader.

And Burl and Max-you guys are still the best. Thanks for being such devoted recipe testers.

“MOLLY, PLEASE TRY TO GET THROUGH THE WEEK-END without any dead bodies,” Mrs. Shedd said, pushing the rhinestone-encrusted clipboard across her desk to me. “And take good care of this. It’s the first time I’ve turned it over to anyone.” I could see why she made the dead body comment. After forty-seven years of not one dead body showing up in my life, there had been a plethora of them in the past couple of years.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “No murder or mayhem, I promise.” I completely meant it when I said it. Too bad it turned out not to be true.

I stared at the fancy clipboard for a moment as what it meant sank in. Every September the bookstore where I worked, Shedd & Royal Books and More, put on the Get Out of the Heat and Light Your Creative Fire retreat on the Monterey Peninsula. The “getting out of the heat” referred to the September weather in Tarzana, California, which was always hot and dry. In contrast, the Monterey area was cool and damp year round. I’d never been on one of the retreats, but I knew Mrs. Shedd chose four or five creative pursuits, such as writing or candle making, and lined up local people to put on the workshops. The retreaters committed to a topic and went to a number of sessions over the long weekend. At the end there was a gathering and everyone got to show off what they’d done.