An Ale of Two Cities

The Shady Creek, Vermont, Winter Carnival is about to begin and Sadie Coleman is excited about experiencing it, even though it is freezing cold outside. In An Ale of Two Cities by Sarah Fox, Sadie, a former Southerner isn't sure the cold weather is for her.  (An Ale of  Two Cities will be released by Kensington Publishing on November 26).

Although she is happily running her literary pub and developing tasty literary-themed cocktails, Sadie knows she needs to venture outside to at least see her employee Mel in the ice sculpting contest. Mel has been the winner the previous two years, and there are high hopes at the Inkwell.

But the wild card in the contest is former Shady Creek resident and arrogant chef Freddy Mancini, now known as Federico. He pretends he is too good for his former hometown and goes out of his way to snub his former girlfriend, his half brother and just about everyone in town. 



This, of course, does not sit well with Sadie, but she is at the Winter Carnival to cheer Mel on. When Mel discovers her ice sculpting tools have been stolen, she is at a loss to explain who in town would do that. Then she finds one of them embedded in the chest of Freddy Mancini. 

Naturally the police want to question Mel and Sadie staunchly defends her. As she learns more about Freddy, the suspect list grows and Sadie becomes more convinced that Mel is innocent. 

On the personal front, Sadie is feeling lonely because most of her family will be away at Christmas, but her relationship with brewery owner Grayson Blake seems to make some progress. 

Although she puts herself in jeopardy, she finally figures out who the killer is. The literary pub aspect of these books is so much fun, especially to someone who reads as much as I do.