Showing results by author "Claudia Bishop" in All Categories

This entertaining collection features 13 short mystery stories from some of our finest writers, all based on a piece of music. Editors Claudia Bishop and Don Bruns present the stories with two essays, discussing the short mystery and the musical mystery.

Hemlock Falls is a pretty little town in upstate New York. Sarah "Quill" Quilliam, with her talent for business, runs the Inn at Hemlock Falls while her sister, Meg, keeps the patrons happy with her culinary abilities. But when it comes to murder, the Quilliam sisters have to rely on other skills - spotting clues, solving crimes, and catching culprits.

Hemlock Falls is a pretty little town in upstate New York. Sarah “Quill” Quilliam, with her talent for business, runs the Inn at Hemlock Falls, while her sister, Meg, keeps the guests happy with her culinary abilities. But when it comes to murder, the Quilliam sisters have to rely on other skills - spotting clues, solving crimes, and catching culprits. This year, March comes in like a lion, and it’s Meg and Quill who take the brunt of the bite. First, a notorious state supreme court justice has decided to sequester the jury of a high-profile case at their cozy inn.

Helena Houndswood is the epitome of class - at least when the camera's rolling. Behind the scenes, the celebrated expert on stylish living is just a garden-variety snob with a heart of stone. She's furious to learn that a group of decidedly déclassé Hemlock Falls women has won the design contest sponsored by her television show, It's a Beautiful Life. Now one winner is missing and another is dead - but just how far would Helena go to avoid mixing with the unwashed? After all, murder is so tacky.

The good ladies of Hemlock Falls are protesting a nudie bar, and the MacAvoy barn has just burned to a crisp - with someone inside. The Quilliam sisters have a feeling the two incidents are connected, but they have problems of their own.

Hemlock Falls is a pretty little town in upstate New York. Sarah Quilliam, with her talent for business, runs the Inn at Hemlock Falls, while her sister, Meg, keeps the guests happy with her culinary abilities. But when it comes to murder, the Quilliam sisters have to rely on other skills - spotting clues, solving crimes, and catching culprits. The History Days festival is the highlight of the year in Hemlock Falls, and the reenactment of the 17th-century witch trials is the highlight of the festival.

It's hate at first sight for two television antiques show personalities - an aristocratic Brit and a loud, foul-mouthed American - staying at the Hemlock Falls Inn. Their bitter rivalry heats up when they decide to have it out in a cooking contest. It's a good thing that inn owners Meg and Sarah Quilliam are experts at appraising motives for murder when one of them keels over on camera - because the suspects are piling up.

The grouchiest chef in the world of haute cuisine, Bernard LeVasque, has opened a multimillion-dollar cooking school and made quite a splash in the quiet village of Hemlock Falls - even stealing customers from the Inn. Sisters Quill and Meg wished he would leave, but they never wished him dead - which is exactly what has happened, thanks to the knife in his neck. A mysterious scrap of a long-lost recipe found in his hands may hold clues to his killer, or maybe not....

Hemlock Falls is a pretty little town in upstate New York. Sarah Quilliam, with her talent for business, runs the Inn at Hemlock Falls, while her sister Meg keeps the guests happy with her culinary abilities. But when it comes to murder, the Quilliam sisters have to rely on other skills - spotting clues, solving crimes, and catching culprits.

Hemlock Falls is a pretty little town in upstate New York. Sarah Quilliam, with her talent for business, now runs the Palate Restaurant, while her sister, Meg, keeps the patrons happy with her culinary abilities. But when it comes to murder, the Quilliam sisters have to rely on other skills - spotting clues, solving crimes, and catching culprits. The Quilliams have sold the Inn at Hemlock Falls, only to find that they miss the place - bills and all. Worse yet, the new owner has started turning a tidy profit playing host to big spenders.

Sisters Meg and Sarah Quilliam make sure guests feel right at home when they visit the Inn at Hemlock Falls. Located in upstate New York, Hemlock Falls is a small town renowned for its scenic beauty - and scenes of crime. Disaster strikes a mere week before the Hemlock Falls Ladies’ Auxiliary hosts the annual Spring Fete when the festival’s chairwoman - the redoubtable Adela Henry - gives up her job in a huff. Who’s going to judge the justly renowned Jell-O architecture contest? Who will stop the members of the Craft Guild from sabotaging their rivals, the Crafty Ladies? More to the point, who’s got the tact, diplomacy, and iron will necessary to organize the booths and settle quarrels over the programming? Hemlock’s mayor hopes to assure the fete’s success when he recruits professional organizer Linda Connally and her staff to take over Adela’s duties. But when Connally’s body turns up in the trunk of a used car at Peterson’s Automotive, Meg and Sarah are back in the detecting business.

Hemlock Falls is one of the most picturesque villages in Upstate New York, with the Hemlock Inn, owned by the amateur sleuth Quilliam sisters, as its centerpiece. For the Quilliam sisters, there’s nothing jolly about this Christmas. Meg and Quill are near-broke. At least there’s one bright start on the horizon: A big-time magazine and television show will feature the Inn. But soon the editor’s husband skis to his death. Now, if the Quilliams are to save the Inn from a lawsuit, they’ll need to prove this was no accident.

While preparing for the 133rd anniversary of the Battle of Hemlock Falls, sisters Sarah and Meg Quilliam, proprietors of the Inn at Hemlock Falls, find themselves faced with murder when patrons of their establishment begin dying and a Civil War reenactor exposes the real history of the town.

Meg Quilliam would rather eat a rat than judge a deep-fat frying contest. But when celebrity chef Banion O’Haggerty offers to do it - for a pretty penny - and decides to stay at Quill and Meg’s Inn, it’s the start of even more turmoil. Before the new franchise even opens, Mr. Holcomb has competition: Captain Cluck is setting up shop here, too. Then, a butcher knife is missing and so is Banion! It’s anyone’s guess who will ruffle this killer’s feathers next....

Hemlock Falls is a pretty little town in upstate New York. Sarah Quilliam, with her talent for business, runs the Inn at Hemlock Falls. Her sister, Meg, keeps the patrons happy with her culinary abilities. But when it comes to murder, the Quilliam sisters have to rely on other skills - spotting clues, solving crimes, catching culprits.

Just when Sarah Quilliam (Quill) hopes a wealthy investor from Finland will allow her to buy back her beloved Inn at Hemlock Falls, things start to unravel. Her sister, Meg, the Inn’s three-star chef, plans to marry and move to New York; Quill’s investor delays signing the check - and mysterious “accidents” occur after a couple of Hollywood scriptwriters and their producer show up at the inn. Quill and Meg set out to uncover the truth - before the number of dead bodies can escalate further. 

Sarah Quilliam (“Quill”) and her sister Meg are in deep financial trouble. Unable to pay bills and overhead on their beloved Inn at Hemlock Falls, they’re relieved when five women who call themselves the Crafty Ladies book several days at the Inn. The local crafts fair and wineries, Quill and Meg hope, will bring in more tourists. When a guest at the Inn is murdered, and then a second body is found, both corpses with a triangle nearby, Quill sets out to unravel the motives and find the killer.

The Quilliam sisters, Quill and Meg, are glad to escape Hemlock Falls’ snow and cold weather with a trip to tropical Palm Beach, sponsored by a rich divorcee for her new “charity”. Meg hopes to earn a chef’s “third star” at the charity’s Institute for Fine Foods, and Quill will teach a management seminar. The sisters soon learn they are caught in the middle of a war between the the charity’s spiteful sponsor and her enraged, immensely powerful ex-husband.  

Hosting the wedding rehearsal dinner of ex-senator Alphonse Santini, who seeks reelection and has transformed the quiet inn at Hemlock Falls into a political battleground, sisters Sarah and Meg become involved in a recipe for murder.