Christmas in Christmas Town -- Guest Vicki Delany #bookgiveaway

Today we welcome Vicki Delany to the blog, with a very special treat---and a giveaway! Leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of REST YE MURDERED GENTLEMEN, the first in her new Year-Round Christmas Mysteries, out now!

It wouldn’t be Christmas without cookies.

The town of Rudolph New York is the setting for Vicki Delany’s new series, the Year Round Christmas mysteries. The first book, Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen, was released this month. Rudolph wants to be known as America’s Christmas Town and to the delight of the townsfolk a reporter for a big European travel magazine is in town to write an article on them. Excitement is high at the semi-annual (yes, they have two a year) post-Santa Claus parade reception in the town hall. The party is being catered by Vicky Casey, owner and chief baker of Victoria’s Bake Shoppe.  Vicky’s gingerbread is rapidly becoming a Rudolph institution as is her ginger cake and hot chocolate with ginger tonic. Also prominent at the party are Vicky’s special Molasses Spice cookies. 

Too bad someone slipped poison into the special cookie Vicky made for the special guest ... 

Vicki Delany’s Molasses spice cookies (poison not included)

·         2 cups all-purpose flour

·         1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

·         1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

·         1/2 teaspoon salt

·         1 1/2 cups sugar

·         3/4 cup (6 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature

·         1 large egg

·         1/4 cup molasses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In a shallow bowl, place 1/2 cup sugar; set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat butter and remaining cup of sugar until combined. Beat in egg and then molasses until combined. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in dry ingredients, just until a dough forms.

Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to 1 tablespoon. Roll balls in reserved sugar to coat.

Arrange balls on baking sheets, about 3 inches apart. Bake, one sheet at a time, until edges of cookies are just firm, 10 to 15 minutes (cookies can be baked two sheets at a time, but they will not crackle uniformly). Cool 1 minute on baking sheets; transfer to racks to cool completely.

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen is her twentieth book, and the first in the Year Round Christmas cozy series from Berkley Prime Crime. Under the pen name of Eva Gates, she is the national bestselling author of the Lighthouse Library series, the latest of which is Booked for Trouble.  Vicki lives in Prince Edward County Ontario, and she is the current president of the Crime Writers of Canada.

Find Vicki at www.vickidelany.com. Twitter @vickidelany or Facebook: evagatesauthor

Vicki is offering a copy of REST YE MURDERED GENTLEMEN to one lucky reader (US  or Canadian addresses only). Please leave a comment by midnight, Monday, November 23, to enter. Vicki would love to know what your favorite holiday baking is.