Easter Basket Murder

December 15, 2023
Three stories chronicle the manifold perils of Easter egg hunts. Meier's title story reminds you that egg hunts are not just for kids. When the Tinker's Cove Chamber of Commerce sponsors a raffle offering shoppers a chance to win a basket of goodies for collecting 10 egg-shaped stickers from local merchants, local reporter Lucy Stone is torn between seeking out stickers and trying to massage the promotion into a newsworthy story. She gets to do both when the basket's big prize--an egg-shaped miniature from famous sculptor Karl Klaus--goes missing, and she decides that the best way to find it is to interview the participating shopkeepers, collecting stickers at each door. Once the missing egg leads to murder, she gets a juicy story to boot. Hollis' "Death by Easter Egg" features a child-centered hunt that's more traditional until Hayley Powell's grandson, Eli, switches baskets with security guard Raymond Dobbs, who's playing Easter Bunny at the community egg hunt, and Dobbs dies from anaphylactic shock after eating peanut butter-filled chocolate eggs. Though she's concerned about Eli's parents' laissez-faire parenting, Hayley nevertheless resists saddling toddler Eli with the blame for Dobbs' demise and sets about finding the real culprit. Ross' "Hopped Along" features a doting aunt whose 6-year-old nephew, Jack, interrupts his hunt to report finding the Easter Bunny lying dead nearby. Julia Snowden rushes to the scene to find a man in a Peter Rabbit-style morning coat lying in a garden. He isn't dead, as his subsequent disappearance attests. But murder follows quickly, and finding a solution to the puzzle proves a good deal harder than helping Jack fill his Easter basket. Another dose of holiday mayhem from a reliable trio.

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