Body and Soul Food (A Books & Biscuits Mystery, Band 1) - Softcover

Collette, Abby

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593336178 ISBN 13: 9780593336175

Verlag: Berkley, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

In this page-turning new mystery series, fraternal twins Keaton and Koby will pull double duty when they take down a killer while preparing to open their new bookstore and soul-food café, Books & Biscuits.

When Koby Hill and Keaton Rutledge were orphaned at age two, they were separated, but their unbreakable connection lingered. Years later, they reunite and decide to make up for lost time and capitalize on their shared interests by opening up a well-stocked bookstore and cozy soul-food café in the quaint Pacific Northwest town of Timber Lake. But this new chapter of their lives could end on a cliffhanger after Koby's foster brother is found murdered.

The murder, which occurred in public between light-rail stops, seems impossible for the police to solve. But as Keaton and Koby know, two heads are always better than one, especially when it comes to mysteries. With just a week to go before the grand opening of their new café, the twins will use their revitalized connection with each other to make sure this is the killer's final page.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Wall Street Journal bestselling author Abby Collette loves a good mystery. She was born and raised in Cleveland, and it's a mystery even to her why she hasn't yet moved to a warmer place. As Abby Collette, she is the author of the Ice Cream Parlor mystery series, about a millennial MBA-holding granddaughter running a family-owned ice cream shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and the upcoming Books & Biscuits mystery series, starring a set of fraternal twins who reunite and open a bookstore and soul food café. Writing as Abby L. Vandiver, she is the author of the Logan Dickerson Mysteries, featuring a second-generation archaeologist and a nonagenarian, as well as the Romaine Wilder Mysteries, pairing an East Texas medical examiner and her feisty, funeral-home-owning auntie as sleuths. Abby spends her time writing, facilitating writing workshops at local libraries and hanging out with her grandchildren, each of whom are her favorite.

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Chapter One

 

"He put his foot in those greens."

 

Reef stopped and looked at me. Hand hovering midway between bowl and open mouth. A forkful of collards dangling. Juice dripping. His eyes went from mine to Koby's flip-flop-clad feet to the dark, limp greens in front of him. "You mean like they do with grapes?" Scraping his teeth across the surface of his tongue, he stuck it out and scrunched up his face. "Ugh! Is that how you make 'em?"

 

A bright, sun-filled afternoon, we were out back of our soon-to-be bookstore and cafŽ. We'd put out three umbrellaed wooden tables with our logo in the bricked alleyway and scattered brightly colored potted plants around.

 

"No." Koby pursed his lips and shook his head at me. "That's not how I make them. She just learned that term," he said, and chuckled. "It's just a saying, Reef. You know. You say it about the person who cooked something that's really good."

 

"So you didn't actually stick your feet in 'em?" Not moving his head although talking to Koby, Reef rolled his eyes my way.

 

"Nope." Koby was sitting on one of the benches with the head of his yellow Labrador retriever, Remy, resting on his lap. "Not literally." He grinned and scratched Remy's head and around his torn ear. "My feet"-he held up a hand like he was swearing-"at no time during the cooking of those collard greens were anywhere near them."

 

Satisfied, Reef slurped the greens from his fork and covered his mouthful of food with his fist. "Man! These are good." He smacked his lips before shoveling in more, letting everyone in earshot know how much he liked them.

 

"You've mentioned that with each mouthful," I said, and laughed.

 

"Because they are." He chewed while he talked. The grin on his face matched the one Koby was wearing. "Even if you did try to sabotage my enjoyment." He narrowed his eyes at me. "Bad sister."

 

Koby laughed. "Don't call my sister bad."

 

"Koby," Reef said, swallowing his food, his laugh almost causing him to choke. "You know Keaton's my girl." He winked at me. "But what I don't get is why haven't you ever made these for me before?"

 

"I'm not in the habit of cooking for you, Reef."

 

"Well, you should, bro. Even if you need to stick your feet in them. I mean, even the juice is good."

 

"Guess what the juice is called," I said.

 

Reef looked down in his bowl and swirled the brownish-green liquid around. "Okay, I'll bite. What is it called, Keaton?"

 

"Pot liquor," I said.

 

Reef mouthed the words as he sat on the picnic bench next to my brother. "Didn't you cook 'em in water? I thought you said you put them in a pot of water. You know I don't drink anymore."

 

"I did cook them in water," Koby said. "It's just another word that Keaton's learned. You'd think as a librarian, her vocabulary would be broader."

 

Reef laughed.

 

"Gotcha," I said. As much as Reef teased me, it was fun to get him.

 

"Koby Hill and Keaton Rutledge." Reef held up his plastic bowl and winked at me. "Here's to your new venture together. If all the food is as good as what I've sampled so far, it is definitely going to be a success." He turned up his bowl and downed the juice.

 

Koby Hill was my twin brother. Fraternal. Of course. But there's a story to why we have different last names. One that tends to tug on the heartstrings of whomever we tell.

 

Born July 2, twenty-five years ago. As far as we know, the only two children of one Morie Hill, age twenty-two.

 

And as it was to be our fate, on July 3, two years later, we were separated after having our last birthday together the day before. Abandoned, maybe orphaned, I was soon adopted. Koby wasn't. That's how he still got to keep our biological mother's last name. Or our father's. We weren't sure about that either because we knew nothing about him. Yet.

 

Koby had grown up in foster care. I didn't find out about him until he showed up at my door, a DNA kit in hand. "Just to make sure," he'd said. But standing there looking at each other, neither one of us had any doubt. We knew right then that there was an incontrovertible bond between us. And the resemblance was obvious. We had no idea whom we looked like, but we definitely looked like each other. Light skin, full lips, big eyes and long lashes. He was taller than me by nearly a half a foot, one of our few differences. Our hair was sandy brown, and it had Koby questioning if we were biracial. Then his DNA came back, knocking that idea down. According to our countries of origin, we were black.

 

We found each other shortly after my dad died. Koby's appearance in my life was just what I needed to pull me through my grief.

 

My father had left me a little nest egg, and with Koby's help, we found my house in Timber Lake after I landed the library job. That was when I first found out that my twin brother was a phenomenal chef. He'd come over and hang out, cook me food and borrow from my bookshelf as if it were part of the county's library system.

 

It was a late-fall evening, over a big bowl of creamy, cheesy grits with big juicy blackened shrimp, that I found out about his dream. I had told him he should open a restaurant.

 

"You could clean up!" I said. "Everyone would come and eat your food."

 

"I've been thinking about doing that. With you," he'd said. "Ever since I was thirteen. That's when I first went to Mama Zola's, and she let me hang out in the kitchen with her."

 

"Doing it with me?" I placed an open palm on my chest. "You didn't know me when you were thirteen. How did you think you would have a business with me?"

 

"I knew I would find you."

 

"And did you think I would be able to help you cook? Because I can't cook."

 

"You wouldn't cook."

 

"What would I do?"

 

That was when he pulled out a tattered folded picture from his wallet. He must have found it in a magazine. The color had started to rub off.

 

"It's a bookstore and cafŽ." He gently passed the picture over to me. "A soul food cafŽ."

 

"A bookstore cafŽ?"

 

"No. A bookstore and a cafŽ. One business, two sides. You would run the bookstore. Which is perfect for you. I would run the restaurant."

 

I stared down at the picture. An archway separated the two sides, but books were everywhere. "And did you know at thirteen I was going to be a librarian?"

 

"I learned to cook, but my love of books was innate." He touched his heart. "I was sure you'd have that same love, too."

 

And he was right. My love of books came from deep inside. Going to the library was one of my first memories.

 

Koby had had a clear vision for Books & Biscuits. It had been his idea in the first place. And even though I had just started my first job as a librarian, it didn't take much for him to talk me into it. I could hear my father, who, at the time, hadn't too long before become my guardian angel, telling me to go ahead, spread my wings, because he knew I was ready to take on the world.

 

Koby had known about me all along, and after that conversation, I found that once he learned about me, he'd made plans for our lives to be spent together. Sure, he didn't know my name, but he knew I was somewhere out there.

 

That was thanks to Reef Jeffries. The man who'd been stopping by to help us get our new soul food and book cafŽ up...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Berkley
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593336178
• ISBN 13: 9780593336175
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 336
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchbär; info@buchbaer.de; ; Weberstr. 67; Osnabrück; 49084; Deutschland