Small town traditions are celebrated throughout Maine during the holiday season. But when it comes to Halloween, some people are more than willing to reap a harvest of murder . . .
DEATH OF A HALLOWEEN PARTY MONSTER by LEE HOLLIS Everyone attending Island Times Food and Cocktail columnist Hayley Powell’s Halloween bash is dressed as their favorite movie monster from the Bride of Frankenstein and Jaws to Chucky and Pennywise the clown. But when partygoers stumble upon Boris Candy’s bludgeoned costumed corpse, it falls to Hayley to discover who among her guests wanted to stop the man from clowning around permanently . . .
Release date:
August 22, 2023
Publisher:
Kensington Books
Print pages:
112
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“Bingo,” Hayley said with a wink. Although pretty much everyone at the party had nailed her costume on the first guess. There were only so many movie-monster characters who would wear a cheap metal tiara and a satin, white prom gown splattered with fake pig’s blood. She had set down the flower bouquet that completed her look earlier so she could serve more food to her guests.
Hayley was excited to be hosting her first-ever private function at her new restaurant.
Hayley’s Kitchen.
She still could not believe it, even with the beautifully stenciled signage outside.
Hayley Powell officially owned her own business.
After she’d opened the doors to her new eatery, just two months ago, in the small coastal tourist town of Bar Harbor, Maine, Hayley’s Kitchen had quickly become the new local hot spot. Although most of the island summer visitors had departed immediately after Labor Day, Hayley had remained open, hoping to serve the town until at least Thanksgiving. And given the unexpected support from the community, she was now considering possibly even staying open until Christmas, almost unheard of in a tiny New England tourist town. But Bar Harbor desperately needed a year-round place for friends and families to enjoy a nice dinner out during the cold, unforgiving winter months, and Hayley was itching to fill that void.
She had decided to celebrate her newfound success by throwing a party. Halloween was her favorite holiday of the year, and so, with the help of her BFFs Liddy and Mona, she’d e-mailed invitations for what she hoped would be her first annual Halloween party at Hayley’s Kitchen, with many more in the years to come.
Once word got out that Hayley was having a soirée at her new restaurant, half the town had clamored for invites. But Hayley had insisted on keeping the guest list down to a manageable thirty attendees, at least for her first time out. But, of course, to no one’s surprise, about a third of those invited asked if they could bring a guest, and Hayley just couldn’t say no, so at last tally, thirty-nine people in a wide variety of colorful Halloween costumes were packed into her restaurant’s main dining room.
“What about me? Can you guess who I am?” Reverend Ted asked eagerly as he struck a pose, arms out.
Hayley smirked.
This was hardly a huge mental challenge.
Reverend Ted was in a tunic and sandals, wearing a gray wig and fake beard, holding a tablet made of Styrofoam with the Ten Commandments printed on the front of it.
“Um, wild guess, Moses?” Hayley shrugged.
The invitation had specifically requested, in the spirit of Halloween, that everyone come dressed as their favorite movie monster. Reverend Ted had obviously missed the memo. Moses was a far cry from the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Reverend Ted relaxed. “I know, it’s a little on the nose. Local pastor comes as religious figure, but I didn’t have time to go buy a new costume, so I recycled this one from last year. I’m still new to town, so no one has ever seen me wear it before. By the way,” he said, snatching one of the hors d’oeuvres off her silver tray, “these little cheese pumpkins are delicious.”
“Thank you, Ted,” Hayley said, not wanting to be rude, but quickly moving on. She had so much to do. The party had only started a half hour ago, and she was already running low on food. She had spent the past week cooking and baking in the few hours she was not busy running the restaurant. She was closed on Mondays, so that finally gave her a full day to finish preparing. Although she was not about to admit it to anyone, Hayley was using her guests as guinea pigs. She had made a wide array of recipes from her card file for the party, and she was hoping to see what was popular and what was not before she decided whether or not to add them to her permanent menu or nightly specials.
Suddenly, there was a loud crash.
Hayley spun around to see Freddy Krueger, with the iconic molded face mask, hat, striped shirt, and glove with fake steel claws. He had dropped his cocktail glass, and it had shattered all over the floor. His eyes were bulging out at the sight of a giant shark standing next to him.
“Sorry, Cappy,” the shark said.
Hayley instantly recognized the voice inside the big bulky foam shark costume.
It was Mona.
As if reading her thoughts, Liddy was suddenly at Hayley’s side. “Why on earth would she choose such a cumbersome costume, knowing the room would be so packed with people? I tried to warn her, but since when does she listen to me? That’s the fourth person she has bumped into in fifteen minutes. If this keeps up, you’ll have no glassware left by the end of the party!”
Freddy Krueger bent down to pick up the shards of glass off the floor. Feeling guilty, Mona bent down to help, but she was weighted down by her unmanageable costume and pitched forward, landing flat on the floor, facedown.
“Shark down! Shark down!” Mona cried, her voice muffled. She rolled over onto her back, arms and legs sticking out of the costume, flailing.
Liddy couldn’t help but giggle, and Hayley nudged her, flashing an admonishing look. Mona’s greatest fear was anyone laughing at her. She dreaded embarrassment of any kind.
Freddy Krueger tried to lift her up but couldn’t do it on his own, so he signaled a couple of buddies, a sexy vampire and a furry thing—maybe the Wolfman, was Hayley’s best guess—who bounded over to help with the heavy lift. Together, they managed to haul Mona back up to her feet; they could see her red, puffy face inside the shark’s mouth, a border of shark teeth surrounding it, almost as if she was inside a big, round picture frame.
“Thanks, guys,” Mona barked as she marched over to Hayley and Liddy. “He should have watched where he was going!”
“Oh, it’s his fault?” Liddy gasped, incredulous.
They could see Mona glaring at them from . . .
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