A Catered New Year’s Eve: A Mystery with Recipes

Crawford’s convoluted 15th mystery with recipes (after 2018’s A Catered Cat Wedding) opens with Ada Sinclair, a distant relative of Bernie and Libby Simmons, owners of their late mother’s café in Longely, N.Y., inviting the sisters to cater a New Year’s Eve party. Bernie hopes that Ada’s outreach signals an end to a long-standing family feud, even after the sisters’ father, retired cop Sean Simmons, warns them that the Sinclairs are the very definition of dysfunction. Ada has discovered a notebook that she believes proves her father’s death 10 years earlier was murder, and she intends to present her evidence at midnight and reveal the killer. But the party ends abruptly when a guest collapses and dies after being pricked by a needle embedded in her Christmas popper. Fearing she’ll be framed for murder, Ada flees. Bernie and Libby determine to uncover the truth, and thus ensues a quagmire of activity involving secret meetings, car chases, breaking and entering, and endless banter between the two sisters. Established fans will best appreciate this one. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Nov.)