A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor
Food & Spirits Book 1
Darci Hannah
Kensington Pub
August 20th, 2024
A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor by Darci Hannah is a cozy mystery intertwined with historical fiction that has a paranormal and food aspect to it.
Chef Bridget “Bunny” MacBride has been given a special opportunity for her own cooking show with a new reality TV show, Food & Spirits. She will team up with ghost hunter Brett Bloom and psychic medium Giff McGrady and travel around the world to visit haunted places to hunt out any spirits that have failed to cross over and try to lure them to the table for a special meal prepared by Chef Bunny.
“I got the idea from my younger brother, Ron. One of his hobbies was that he was a ghost hunter. His wife is a ‘foodie.” He told me to watch every ghost story on TV. He even joined a paranormal investigative ghost team. I thought and conferred with him to pitch a food baiting ghost show on the Food Network. Two years ago, I decided to pitch this as a cozy mystery book series about a reality TV show that food- baits ghosts. I feel that this first book is a journey with my brother. I am contracted for three.”
The first episode of Food & Spirits takes Bunny, Brent, Giff, and the rest of their team to Hampshire, England to investigate a historic house that has been turned into a famous haunted hotel, Bramsford Manor. It is said to be haunted by a young woman who died on her Christmas wedding night in the 18th century.
The author lost her brother a few years ago and has added that aspect to Bunny’s character who is still grieving. “I would describe Bridget Bunny MacBride as a happy go lucky person on a good day. She is working on her dream as a food caterer. She is good natured until she gets pushed into a corner.”
Bunny prepares a traditional English holiday wedding dinner to tempt the Mistletoe Bride to come to the table so Brett and Giff can do their thing. Before that can happen, her custom-made boning knife is found in the chest of a very human dinner guest. She wasn’t sure about the whole premise of Food & Spirits, but she never imagined she would find herself the top suspect in a murder investigation. Bunny now needs her ghost-hunting friends to help her hunt down the real killer with a big assist from her clairvoyant Grandma.
Fans of the “Beacon Bake Shop series” should not worry since that will be Hannah’s next book, out in November. It is titled Murder at The Lemonberry Tea. One of the heroines, Kennedy, has a British lifestyle food diva come for a book signing. Kennedy’s family will come to town to meet the diva, but she ends up disappearing.
The next Food & Spirits book is titled A Spirited Summer at Dundoon Castle. The castle is in Scotland. It will come out a year from now.
The author also wants to warn readers to be careful about social media. “I lost my Facebook account that was hacked and got locked out by them. This occurred right before the book launch. The person tried to fish my followers to click on a link. I could not even get into my account to report it. There was no way to physically contact Facebook, so I had to file a claim with the Attorney General. I called what I thought was a helpline but that was a scam as well. They wanted me to download an app so they could take over my phone. If this ever happens do not fall for it.”
