Charles Dickens visited America in 1842 and met Edgar Allan Poe in Philadelphia. Poe had favorably reviewed the 1841 serialized Dickens novel, Barnaby Rudge. That novel included an unusual character, a talkative raven. The bird was named Grip after the Dickens family’s pet raven. 

Three years later, Poe’s best-known poem, The Raven, was published. Literary scholars believe that Grip inspired the poem, and there are similarities. A character in Barnaby Rudge hears Grip and says “What was that? Him tapping at the door? Tis someone knocking softly at the shutter. Who can it be?” Compare those words with Poe's: "...suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door." When imprisoned with Barnaby, Grip's vocabulary is reduced to one word that he repeatedly croaks: “Nobody.” Poe's raven also repeats a single word: “Nevermore.” Draw your own conclusions.

These pictures of Dickens and Poe differ from the ones we often see of them. Dickens is generally depicted as portly and avuncular and Poe as mustached and haunted. But in these portraits, both appear healthy, handsome, and in their prime. 

After Grip died, Dickens had him stuffed and mounted. A collector of Poe memorabilia eventually bought the stuffed bird at auction and brought it to America. The raven Grip, looking as he did when he was in the Dickens household, is now in Philadelphia, where his owner and Poe met 180 years ago. The bird resides in the Free Library of Philadelphia. A plaque there commemorates the relationship of Grip, Dickens, and Poe. 

​On April 14, 1912, passengers ate their final meals on the Titanic. Fewer than half of them survived to eat another day. We know what they ate that day because a few passengers tucked souvenir menus away. For example, an American banker’s wife had the first-class lunch menu in her purse when she escaped the sinking ship. 

The largest group of passengers were in third class, and less than a quarter of them survived, primarily women and children. On most ships of that era, third-class passengers had to bring food with them for the voyage, but on the Titanic, they were served meals at long tables in a room resembling a school cafeteria. They ate dinner in the middle of the day, as was common among the working classes. A single menu card contained the details for each meal of the day.

First and second class passengers ate more sumptuous meals as the menus below show. 

In S'more Murders, the fifth of my Five-Ingredient Mysteries, a Titanic-obsessed yacht owner hires my sleuth Val and her grandfather to re-create the final meal served on that doomed ship.

On the anniversary of its sinking, the yachtsman welcomes his guests aboard and assigns them roles in a murder mystery game, "Death on the Titanic." Val soon reaches the chilling conclusion that the host is fishing for the culprit in a more recent crime.

No one gets to finish Val's Titanic-inspired dinner, and it's the final meal for one person on the yacht. Val and her grandfather have to reel in a real killer before s’more murders go down. 

Read more about S'more Murders and find out where to buy the book. 

​During the Victorian era, when store-bought valentines replaced handmade ones, the buyer had two choices: hearts-and-flowers cards expressing love and admiration or valentines with caricatures and insulting verses ridiculing the recipient. 

The typical format of the vinegar valentine was a caricature of the recipient and a short verse at the bottom. Men sent vinegar valentines to damsels who’d dared turn them down or to women they were throwing over. Likewise, women sent cease-and-desist valentines to men who were pursuing them.
 
The vinegar valentines weren't only for men and women in failed courtships. People could buy valentines to chastise the behavior of relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances. 

Recipes for six five-ingredient desserts are on this website (under the Food menu). Five of the six are easy to make. The only challenging one is the tarte Tatin in the last picture. But it's worth the trouble if you have some time on your hands. 

I've joined the Mystery Lovers' Kitchen blog, where writers share their favorite recipes, chat about food topics, and pass on news about their books. Check out some of the easy recipes I've posted there. 

Does a costume disguise or reveal who you really are? That question comes up in Crypt Suzette, my sixth Five-Ingredient Mystery. When Val caters a Halloween party at Bayport’s bookshop, a costume contest is part of the festivities. The contestants are supposed to dress as fictional characters. When the prizewinner, Suzette, is murdered, her competitors are suspects. Val can't help wondering if they might have something in common with the violent characters they portray: Lady Macbeth, the Phantom of the Opera, Count Dracula, and Morgan le Fay, the evil sorceress from Camelot. 
 
Val, who dresses as Nancy Drew, tells her friend Bethany, “People choose costumes that mirror their personalities.” Do you agree? Or is wearing a costume an excuse to take on a totally different personality? How do you choose a costume?

Comment by July 21st for a chance to win an advanced reader edition of Crypt Suzette.
UPDATE: The contest is over. The winner is Gail. Thank you to those who wrote about the costumes they've worn and their reasons for choosing them. It was fun to read the variety of comments. The common thread is that we express ourselves through costumes whether they represent who we are or who we would like to be. 

Puns in the titles of cozy mysteries signal a light tone and often a large helping of humor. The tradition of using a food pun in the titles of culinary mysteries traces back to the 1990s when Diane Mott Davidson’s Cereal Murders and Phyllis Richman’s The Butter Did It came out. If anyone knows of earlier punning titles of food mysteries, please let me know. Four of my titles incorporate a pun with food and the suggestion of wrongdoing or death. For all but my first book, the title dish has five-ingredients or fewer, appears on the cover, and plays a role in the plot. Needless to say, I obsess about titles.

​Comment with your favorite punning culinary (or other) mystery title for a chance to win an Advanced Reader Edition of S'more Murders, which comes out on July 31st. To comment, click on the word "Comments" in the column to the left of this post.
 
Note: I can ship only to U.S. addresses. The contest ends Sunday, July 8th at midnight. I'll contact the winner by email and announce the results in this blog.
Share your favorite puns and good luck! 

Chris Mann is the winner of the contest! 
​
Thank you to everyone who shared a title with a pun. I've enjoyed reading them.

Eighty years ago this month, Daphne du Maurier delivered the manuscript of Rebecca to her publisher. The publisher ordered a first print run of 20,000 copies. Within a month the book had sold twice that number. The American Booksellers Association voted it 1938's favorite novel, and it has never been out of print since it was first published.

British bookseller WHSmith, celebrating its 225th anniversary this year, asked readers to select their favorite book of the the last 225 years. Books by Dickens, Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Orwell, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Harper Lee made the shortlist. Rebecca came in as the readers' favorite. 

What's your all-time favorite book? Comment with your answer for a chance to win a free book. To comment, click on the word "Comments" in the column to the left of this post. Note: The contest ended May 1, and the book is on its way to the winner. ​​

The GIVEAWAY is over. The winner of 12 books is Connie, whose favorite holiday dish is a meatless mincemeat pie. Thank you to those who took the time to comment. I enjoyed reading about everyone's holiday favorites.

While writing a Poe version of "The 12 Days of Christmas," I researched the song's origin. The lyrics enumerate gifts given each day leading up to the 12th day after Christmas, the traditional end of the holiday season. According to Christian tradition, that was the day the Magi presented the Christ child with gifts. Twelfth Night festivities, which date back to medieval England, involved gift giving, games, songs, dances, and a special food--the Twelfth Night cake, made with butter, eggs, sugar, fruit, nuts, spices, and a dried bean. The person whose slice of cake contained the bean served as the king or queen of the revels, with power to command the others. Disguises and sometimes social role reversals occurred, as servants gave orders to their "betters" for one night a year.

To celebrate Twelfth Night, I'm giving away twelve books, mostly cozy mysteries, on January 6, 2018. To enter the drawing for the books, leave a comment about a food you associate with the holidays and include your email address. I'll announce the winner here on January 7th. One winner will receive all twelve books. Sorry, I can send only to postal addresses in the U.S. My favorite holiday food is my grandmother's dessert pierogi with a sweet cheese filling. What's yours?

On the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death today, I was struck by the similarities between her and Edgar Allan Poe, inspiration for The Tell-Tale Tarte, my latest mystery.  
​
1. Mark Twain dissed them both, and in a single sentence. Twain said of Poe: “To me his prose is unreadable—like Jane Austen’s.”

2. Both are honored with action figures, as is Shakespeare, but not Mark Twain (only a bobble head).   
​
​3. Both died young: Austen at 41, Poe at 40.
 
4. Both published in the first half of the 19th century: Jane Austen’s major works came out in the 1810s, Poe’s in the 1830s and 1840s.
 
5. Both had difficulty getting published and earning a living from their writing. Poe needed money more desperately than Austen, whose poverty was genteel.

At 99 cents for the e-book version and a comparably low price for the paperback, it's hard to pass up this helpful book, available now from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. For more information about the book and a complete list of contributors, visit editor Lois Winston's page about the book.