Free Murder At The Fete: A Lady Margaret Turnbull Culinary Cozy Mystery (Culinary Mystery Books Book 1) by C T Mitchell

Chapter 1
     Unlike the name implies, Bangalow, New South Wales is
probably one of the most serene communities in the county.  The name actually
appeared to have come from an Aboriginal word meaning “a low hill” or “a kind
of palm tree”, and what better to be named after than a palm tree? 
     
    The small town is a beautiful destination for
day-trippers who want a gorgeous small town to visit; it had the most darling
village streets filled with shops and boutiques, and cafes bragging about their
locally grown organic produce. 
     
    Like most of the little villages in Australia, it
boasts a hotel and pub, a church, a police station run by Constable Greenaway,
its own mayor’s office, and a small dance hall adjacent to the primary school. 
The town is set up so that the people who live there don’t have to travel far
to do the things they need to do.  It’s one of Australia’s smartest and
quaintest regional centers, and Maggie Turnbull loves it.
     
    She and her husband had visited friends in Bangalow two
decades ago on the way back from a business trip, and she’d always wanted to come
back and settle down.  When her husband passed away, that’s just what she did. 
Admittedly, she still stood out a little with her thick British accent, and
occasionally people would be brave enough to tell her that her voice and the
way she carried herself made her seem a little pretentious.  But those who know
her realize nothing could be further from the truth.
     
    Eventually, though, she didn’t let it bother her. 
Maggie, or Lady Margaret Turnbull as she was properly called, could have moved
anywhere in the world when her husband passed of a heart attack, but she
settled in New South Wales for the latter part of her life.  The late Mr.
Turnbull, a dot com millionaire, sold his sold email service to British Telecom
for 157m pound, leaving Maggie to do as she pleased. 
     
    As she pleased, it turns out, was a newfound passion
for cooking and eating healthy foods as a way to stave off poor health for
herself.  She loved it so much that she was eventually inspired to teach
others, as well.  She purchased Lawler’s Loft, an architecturally designed
hilltop acreage home with old world charm and commanding views across the
valley to the mountains in the west and Pacific Ocean to the east. Shortly
after making her purchase she decided to teach others to live a healthy
lifestyle, and the town’s bed and breakfast, became synonymous with the beloved
busybody, Maggie Turnbull. Busybody in a kind way. Maggie was not your
stereotyped, doddering fool type. Quite the opposite in fact. 
     
    Running the bed and breakfast, teaching her patrons to
cook wholesome food for their own wellbeing and igniting a passion for food in
others provided most of her satisfaction in life, but everyone needs an extra
hobby; at least in the mind of a busy Maggie Turnbull. 
     
    In her spare time, her favorite thing to do was to
irritate Detective Inspector Tom Sullivan; albeit not intentionally.  It wasn’t
her fault she had such a knack for knowing other people’s business before he
did…maybe it was just woman’s intuition?  Although the high academic marks
she’d received all her life would suggest her brain was simply superior to his,
which always made her grin.
     
    As much as he tried to like her, it really did bother
him to constantly be chasing her hunches.  No matter how much Tom tried to do things
by the book, he couldn’t ever figure out a way to beat Maggie to solving the
crime. Tom’s uncomfortableness was evident particularly around Maggie, often
getting a twitch in his eye. And that could be seen by all and sundry,
something the locals would pick up on.
     
    And she was the only person who drove him batty, even
though he was thought highly of all over Bangalow.  He did his job
exceptionally well, which Maggie actually respected.  The man had a real
passion for justice after witnessing a hit and run when he was in