The Power of Christie

Never underestimate the impact Agatha Christie has on today's cozy mystery genre. In Ellie Alexander's On Thin Icing, the Christie legacy is prominent. Jules Capshaw has expanded her bakery, Torte, to include catering meals as well as baking delicious treats. She is asked to prepare meals for a weekend retreat at a lodge in the mountains by her friend Lance, director of the Ashland, Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Bringing along Sterling as her sous chef, she loads every possible kitchen appliance, including a pressure cooker and other supplies into her four-wheel drive vehicle and heads to Lake in the Woods, 5,000 feet above sea level. Naturally as they begin to climb into the mountains a snow storm is brewing. The road is treacherous and snow covered, but they finally make it to the Lodge.

Lodge owner Mercury Rule greets them an assigns them each a cabin

outside of the Lodge. All of the guests will be staying in cabins away from the lodge, but the meals will be served in the Lodge. Jules is confronted with a drunk and abusive bartender immediately as well as a surprise guest - her estranged husband Carlos.

As the blizzard heightens in intensity and fallen trees block the roads, the Lodge becomes isolated in the snow storm.  And then Jules discovers a body stuffed in a deep freezer.While cooking up wonderfully delicious foods, Jules sifts through the suspects, including Carlos, and finally unmasks the killer.

I enjoy this series because never in a millions years could make the wonderful baked goods created at Torte. The wood-fired brick oven used in the Lodge will, I'm sure, be making an appearance in upcoming books.

The first book in the series is Meet Your Baker.