Fortune Cookie (Culinary Mystery)

Praise for the Culinary Mystery Series

Rocky Road

“Another fabulous installment of the Sadie Hoffmiller series.
The further I got into the story, the more complex it became
. . . definitely a rocky road of a plot!”

—Heather Moore, author of
Heart of the Ocean
and the Timeless Romance anthologies, http://www.hbmoore.com/

Baked Alaska

“Sadie is a well-loved character with plenty of genuine issues which add depth to her personality. I love that
Josi’s books are clean and well-rounded with a bit of humor, plenty of mystery, and nail-biting suspense.”

—Rachelle Christensen, author of
Wrong Number
and
Caller ID,
http://www.rachellejchristensen.com/

Tres Leches Cupcakes

“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

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

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 Luke, author of
Blink of an Eye

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/

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

English Trifle

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

—
Midwest Review Journal,
October 2009

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

Culinary Mysteries

Lemon Tart

English Trifle

Devil’s Food Cake

Key Lime Pie

Blackberry Crumble

Pumpkin Roll

Banana Split

Tres Leches Cupcakes

Baked Alaska

Rocky Road

Wedding Cake
(coming Fall 2014)

Her Good Name

Sheep’s Clothing

Unsung Lullaby

Daisy

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kilpack, Josi S., author.
Fortune cookie / Josi S. Kilpack.
pages cm
Summary: Sadie Hoffmiller is busily adding the final touches to her wedding plans, but the arrival of a mysterious letter that bears a San Francisco postmark and no return address could change everything. The only person Sadie knows in San Francisco is her older sister, Wendy, whom she hasn’t seen or heard from since their mother’s funeral nearly fifteen years ago.
ISBN 978-1-60907-787-7 (paperbound)
1. Hoffmiller, Sadie—Fiction. 2. Cooks—Fiction. 3. Weddings—Planning—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3561.I412F67 2014
813'.54—dc232013039827
Printed in the United States of America
Lake Book Manufacturing, Inc., Melrose Park, IL
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedication

To Madison

May your beautiful wings take you everywhere you want to go but never forget their way home.

Chapter 1

Sadie Hoffmiller had always liked things to be just so. “A place for everything and everything in its place” was efficient, consistent, and reduced both stress and loss. Certainly the investigations she’d been involved in over the last few years had shaken up some of her confidence in being able to keep things as they should be, but for the most part, she felt the changes that the disruptions had caused were for the better. She felt more capable of recovering from difficulties, more aware of what went on around her, and increasingly confident in her ability to take life as it came and respond accordingly. Even the lingering threat on her life was something she had come to terms with, knowing she might one day face it but hoping that perhaps the threat had disappeared.

Despite her confidence at being able to fix things gone wrong, however, she still preferred order to chaos when she had any say in the matter, and of all things Sadie should be able to control, her own wedding was it. Which is why the four-by-nine-inch envelope sitting in the middle of her kitchen table terrified her.

The wedding invitations she’d spent the last two days preparing were stacked on the entry table of her living room waiting for her to take them to the post office in the morning so they would go out before the Fourth of July holiday. She hoped the post office would have a wedding-specific stamp that would be the perfect final touch. Even if the people living out of state couldn’t be there, she wanted them to celebrate the occasion with her, and completing all the invitations before the festivities of the national holiday had been a goal she took great pride in accomplishing.