You Never Know What You’ll Find….

by Olivia (Livie) Greyson and Maddie Briggs
From THE COOKIE CUTTER SHOP MYSTERIES, by Virginia Lowell.

You can visit Livie and Maddie in Dead Men Don’t Eat Cookies, their latest sleuthing adventure, coming July 7. Leave a comment plus an email address by midnight, June 24, for a chance to win a free copy of Dead Men Don’t Eat Cookies!

Maddie Briggs, cookie creator extraordinaire, traced a thin line of fuchsia royal icing around the edge of a hammer-shaped cutout cookie. “Livie, what if your mom finds hidden treasure in that old boarding house? You know, like a sack of money from a stagecoach robbery, or—”

Olivia Greyson looked up from her pile of receipts. “That old building only dates back to the Great Depression. Besides, Chatterley Heights is in Maryland, not the Wild West. Mom is more likely to find little mouse villages when she tears downs those old walls.”

“Dreamer crusher.” Maddie set the decorated cookie aside to dry. “Anyway, I’m really excited about setting up the new kitchen for Ellie’s arts and crafts school. I can’t wait to bake some cookies in a real state-of-the-art oven. Livie, couldn’t we—?”

“Not a chance,” Olivia said. “I have a whopping loan to pay off for The Gingerbread House. Besides, you bake perfect cookies every time here in the store oven, so why spend the money for a new one?”

“Maybe I should burn a few batches,” Maddie muttered under her breath. “Or rig this old oven to explode.”

“What was that?” Olivia arched an eyebrow at her best friend since age ten.

Maddie’s emerald eyes widened to convey innocence. “I was just saying how amazing it is that Ellie and Calliope are getting along so well during the building reconstruction. I figured they’d have killed each other by now.”

Olivia chuckled. “Well, Calliope is managing the construction and footing the bill for everything, so there’s that. Still, I do think she and Mom really are growing on each other. I just hope everything keeps going smoothly.”

The oven timer dinged, and Maddie removed a pan of perfectly done cookies shaped like screwdrivers. With a smirk, she said, “Oh, Livie, something will go wrong. You can count on it.”

SUBMITTED BY VIRGINIA LOWELL

Virginia Lowell is the author of COOKIE DOUGH OR DIE, A COOKIE BEFORE DYING, WHEN THE COOKIE CRUMBLES, ONE DEAD COOKIE, COOKIES AND SCREAM, and DEAD MEN DON’T EAT COOKIES. Visit Virginia at: www.virginialowell.com