Baked Alaska Read online

  © 2013 Josi S. Kilpack .

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Shadow Mountain®. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of Shadow Mountain.

  All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Up, Up, and Away...

  Tres Leches Cupcakes

  A delicious concoction of suspense and surprise baked in the warm New Mexico sun. You’ll enjoy every bite of Tres Leches Cupcakes!”

  —Tristi Pinkston, author of the Secret Sisters Mysteries, reviewer for AML

  “Kilpack is a capable writer whose works have grown and taken on a life of their own. Tres Leches Cupcakes is an amusing and captivating addition to her creative compilations.”

  —Mike Whitmer, Deseret News

  Banana Split

  “In Banana Split, Josi Kilpack has turned a character that we’ve come to love as an overzealous snoop and given her the breath of someone real so we can love her even more. This is a story with an ocean’s depth’s worth of awesome!”

  —Julie Wright, author of the Hazardous Universe series span> “Josi Kilpack does an excellent job with the setting and creating a believable plot with Banana Split. The Sadie Hoffmiller series continues to be one of my favorites.

  —Heather Moore, author of Daughters of Jared

  Pumpkin Roll

  Pumpkin Roll is different from the other books in the series, and while the others have their tense moments,this had me downright nervous and spooked."> During the climax, I kept shaking my head, saying, ‘No way this is happening.’ Five out of five stars for this one. I could not stop reading.”

  —Mindy Holt, www.ldswomensbookreview.com> Pumpkin Roll is tightly plotted, with twists, turns, and pinches in just the right places and it’s obvious Josi takes the recipes just as seriously as she does the story. Complete with expert character development, unique premise, and polished voice, Pumpkin Roll is a thumping good read!”

  —Luisa Perkins, author ofThe Book of Jer3miah andDespirited

  Blackberry Crumble

  “Josi Kilpack is an absolute master at leading you to believe you have everything figured out, only to have the rug pulled out from under you with the turn of a page. Blackberry Crumble is a delightful mystery with wonderful characters and a white-knuckle ending that’ll leave you begging for more.”

  —Gregg Luck, author of Blink of an Eye “Blackberry Crumble offers up a thrilling murder mystery! Most people are not who they appear to be. I can’t give away the really shadowy characters or the killer, but there is a killer—and this killer means business!”

  —Gabi Kupitz

  Key Lime Pie

  “I had a great time following the ever-delightful Sadie as she ate and sleuthed her way through nerve-racking twists and turns and nail-biting suspense.”

  —Melanie Jacobsen, author of The List and Not My Type, http://www.readandwritestuff.blogspot.com/

  “Sadie Hoffmiller is the perfect heroine. She’s funny, sassy, and always my first choice for crime solving. And where better to solve a mystery than the Florida Keys? Key Lime Pie satisfied with every bite!”

  —Julie Wright, author of Cross My Heart, www.juliewright.com “The title of Key Lime Pie will make you hungry, but the story will keep you too busy to bake. Even when oh-so-busy amateur sleuth Sadie Hoffmiller vows to stay out of police business, life comes up with a different plan. A missing girl, a very interesting man with bright blue eyes, and plenty of delicious recipes all create a combination even Sadie can’t resist.”

  —H.B. Moore, www.hbmoore.com

  Devil’s Food Cake

  “Josi Kilpack whips up another tasty mystery where startling twists and delightful humor mix in a confection as delicious as Sadie Hoffmiller’s devil’s food cake.”

  —Stephanie Black, four-time winner of the Whitney Award for Mystery/Suspense “There’s no mistaking that Kilpack is one of the best in this field and not just in the LDS market. Lemon Tart was good, English Trifle was better, but with Devil’s Food Cake she delivers a polished novel that can hold its own anywhere.”

  —Jennie Hansen, Meridian Magazine

  English Trifle

  “English Trifle is a delightful combo of mystery and gourmet cooking, highly recommended.”

  —Midwest Review Journal, October 2009

  “English Trifle is an excellent read and will be enjoyed by teens and adults of either gender. The characters are interesting, the plot is carefully crafted, and the setting has an authentic feel.”

  —Jennie Hansen, Meridian Magazine

  Lemon Tart

  “The novel has a bit of everything. It’s a mystery, a cookbook, a low-key romance and a dead-on depiction of life. . . . That may sound like a hodgepodge. It’s not. It works. Kilpack blends it all together and cooks it up until it has the taste of, well . . . of a tangy lemon tart.”

  —Jerry Johnston, Deseret News “Lemon Tart is an enjoyable mystery with a well-hidden culprit and an unlikely heroine in Sadie Hoffmiller. Kilpack endows Sadie with logical hidden talents that come in handy at just the right moment.”

  —Shelley Glodowski, Midwest Book Review, June 2009

  “Josi Kilpack’s new book Lemon Tart takes everything I love about a culinary mystery—the food, the humor, the intrigue—and blends it all at high speed with a dash of spice in the form of our main character, Sadie. A must-read for those who enjoy well-crafted mysteries.”

  — Tristi Pinkston, http://www.tristipinkston.blogspot.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kilpack, Josi S., author.

  Baked Alaska / Josi S. Kilpack.

  pages cm

  Summary: Sadie Hoffmiller has gathered her family together to enjoy an Alaskan cruise and to help plan her daughter’s wedding. But when her son’s birth mother shows up on the ship, relationships become complicated. And once the dead bodies start appearing, Sadie realizes more than one person on the cruise is keeping secrets.

  ISBN 978-1-60907-328-2 paperbound

  1. Hoffmiller, Sadie (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Cooks—Fiction. 3. Ocean travel—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3561.I412B35 2013

  813.54—dc232012047362

  Printed in the United States of America

  R. R. Donnelley, Crawfordsville, IN

  10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1

  Baked Alaska recipes Kara’s Bread Pudding and Caramel Sauce 10

  Sausage Wontons 29

  Crepes and Toppings 40

  Salmon Caesar Salad 93

  Glazed Salmon 100

  Carrie’s Crunchy Caramel Popcorn 156

  Fruity Popcorn 157

  Chef Ferguson’s Stuffed Mushrooms 233

  Lemon-Zucchini Fettuccine 278

  Baked Alaska 284

  Baked Alaska Cupcakes 285

  Salmon and Red Potato Chowder 341

  Download a free PDF of all the recipes in this book at josiskilpack.com or shadowmountain.com

  Other Books by Josi S. Kilpack

  Her Good Name

  Sheep’s Clothing

  Unsung Lullaby

  Daisy

  Culinary Mysteries

  Lemon Tart

  English Trifle

  Devil’s Food Cake

  Key Lime Pie

  Blackberry Crumble

  Pumpkin Roll

  Banana Split

  Tres Leches Cupcakes Rocky Road (coming Fall 2013)

  To my writing group: Becki, Jody, Nancy, Ronda. There are specific points in this story I owe completely to you guys. You have been a foundation for me for so long and I so appreciate your friend
ship, support, and continual encouragement. I love you gals and am blessed to have you in my life!

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 1

  Acknowledgments

  Author's Note

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  “Don’t be a snob, Mom.”

  Sadie didn’t look up from the gelatinous bread pudding she was poking with the serving spoon. “Bread pudding should not jiggle. If this is any indication of the food I can expect on this cruise, it’s going to be a very long week.”

  “It’s the first buffet,” Breanna said as she spooned some berry cobbler onto her plate. “Don’t judge the food so harshly from just one meal.”

  The cobbler looked okay, so Sadie took a small amount, then followed her daughter down the buffet line.

  “You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” Sadie said, narrowing her eyes at what was supposed to be cheesecake but looked like stiff pudding. She settled for a cherry turnover that looked exactly like the ones Arby’s sold for a dollar. “On that cruise I took with Gayle in January, the food was awful.”

  Sadie had always loved cruises, but just over a year ago, she had undergone some traumatic experiences associated with water, so the inexpensive, three-day Baja cruise with Gayle had been a test to see if Sadie could handle being in a floating hotel. The cruise convinced her she was okay on the water, just not in it.

  The food on that ship, however, had been very low quality. It was a cheap cruise, though, so perhaps that was to be expected. Now she was on another cruise—a longer, more expensive one—with a different cruise line, and the first foray into the menus had shaken her confidence. Good bread pudding should be dense, flavorful, and topped with a creamy caramel sauce—like her cousin Kara’s recipe which Sadie had made for years and years. It wasn’t difficult to make good bread pudding. If the ship’s cooks couldn’t do right by a basic dessert, what would their beef Wellington be like?

  They finished the dessert segment of the buffet and made their way to the salad bar—dessert first whenever possible.

  “If you don’t mind my saying so, you seem a little uptight,” Breanna said once they finished dishing up and were winding their way through the dining room in hopes of finding an empty table. “Is everything okay? Have you already found a dead body you’re afraid to tell me about?”

  Sadie scowled at her daughter’s back. “I’ll have you know I haven’t seen a dead body for eight months, if you don’t count Brother Harper from church, but he was eighty-seven and properly laid out in his coffin when I saw him at the viewing. It was a lovely service.”

  “Eight months—that’s got to be some kind of record, right?”

  “Oh, stop it,” Sadie said, wishing she had a free hand so she could playfully slap her daughter’s arm. “I think that phase of my life is over.” She scanned table after table filled with people already eating. “Is there not even one empty table in this entire dining room?”

  “There are some back there,” Breanna said, nodding toward the back of the ship. “Just calm down.”

  They made their way past their fellow passengers and finally slid into their seats, officially staking their claim at a table for four near a window that looked out over the Seattle pier. The ship wouldn’t sail for another two hours.

  “Seriously, though,” Breanna said once they were seated, “are you okay?”

  Sadie took a breath and decided to spill it. “I’m worried about this trip.”

  Breanna unwrapped her silverware from her napkin, placed the cloth in her lap, then raised her brown eyes to meet Sadie’s blue ones. Both of Sadie’s children were adopted, and not for the first time Sadie thought that Breanna’s birth mother must have been very beautiful.

  “You’re worried? This whole trip was your idea.”

  “I know, but I guess the worry didn’t hit me until I realized Pete and Shawn would be on the transfer bus together. They were on that bus for half an hour, then in line for another hour. What if they decide they hate each other by the time they get here? Then we’re stuck together for seven really lousy days.”

  “Shawn and Pete have spent time together before,” Breanna said. “I’m the one who hardly knows your boyfriend.”

  “Oh, don’t call him that,” Sadie said, feeling her cheeks heat up. “It sounds so...young.” Sadie had recently turned fifty-eight years old. Young was feeling further and further away as she tried to wrap her head around her impending AARP membership.

  Breanna laughed and stabbed a bite of her salad with one hand while tucking her long, straight, brown hair behind her ear with the other. “I’d call him your fiancé, but he hasn’t made it official yet, though I don’t know what he’s waiting for.”

  Sadie took a bite of her own salad to stall before she answered. The truth was that she and Pete had talked about marriage often during the last few months as Pete’s retirement grew closer and the threat Sadie had been running from felt more and more distant—she’d been safely living back in Garrison, Colorado, since December and nothing had happened. But, even so, Sadie had always stopped the wedding discussions when they got to the point of timing and specifics.

  Breanna had been engaged for more than a year now, and the happy couple had finally set the date for October nineteenth. Sadie was loath to take any attention away from her daughter’s special celebration of a joined life.

  Pete understood Sadie’s reasons to delay their own vows, but two and a half years was a really long courtship. This cruise therefore, had multiple purposes: to celebrate Pete’s retirement from the police department, to allow Sadie’s children to get to know him better, and to allow Sadie to catch up with Breanna’s wedding plans. Seeing as how Breanna lived in London and Sadie lived in Colorado, mother and daughter hadn’t had a lot of time to talk things over.

  “So?”

  Sadie looked up, her fork halfway to her mouth. “What?”

  “I asked if Pete was going to make an honest woman of you or not?”

  “Breanna Lynn!” Sadie said, lowering her fork as her cheeks heated up again. “Are you implying that my relationship with Pete Cunningham is anything less than respectable?”

  Breanna’s grin widened, and she pointed her fork across the table. “Bazinga.”

  “Bazinga? What does that mean?”

  Breanna laughed again and took another bite.

  It must be European humor.

  “Isn’t this whole cruise about you making an announcement to Shawn and me?”

  “No,” Sadie said, shaking her head. Is that what they thought? “It’s a family vacation...with Pete, and my chance to get caught up on your wedding plans.”

  “Oh,” Breanna said with a shrug of one shoulder, showing how unconcerned she was about the information. “Shawn and I both l
ike Pete, so I don’t know why you’re worried.”

  Sadie considered how best to proceed as she and Breanna took a few more bites of their meals but decided she may as well lay all her concerns on the table. “I’m also a little worried about Shawn.”

  Bre kept her eyes on her food, a sure indication that she knew something, and Sadie’s stomach fell. As much as Sadie hated being left out, if Shawn were in serious trouble, he wouldn’t only talk to Breanna about it, right? One thing was for certain, if Sadie hoped to get information from Breanna, she couldn’t push too hard or her daughter would clam up. She wasn’t one to be casual with other people’s confidences. “Does he seem okay to you?” Sadie asked innocently.

  “Well, you know, he’s finishing up school this summer and...it’s not the best time to get a job and, well...it’s a big transition.”

  While Shawn had walked with his graduating class just last month, he still had two online classes he needed to finish up over the summer in order to complete his degree in criminal justice.