Egg Shooters

In Childs’s lightweight ninth Cackleberry Club mystery (after 2018’s Eggs on Ice), café owner Suzanne Dietz is making a routine trip to the hospital in the Midwestern town of Kindred to deliver a thermos of chili to her physician fiancé, Sam Hazelet, when a gunman shoots up the place. By the time it’s over, a security guard is dead, a desk clerk is wounded, and the killer has escaped with a duffel bag full of drugs. Kindred’s finest, Sheriff Ray Doogie and Deputy Eddie Driscoll, arrive soon, and Ray is glad to hear that Suzanne is a witness, though the lawmen are puzzled at how the gunman vanished so quickly. When a second drug theft happens, it doesn’t take long for Suzanne to jump right into the investigation with no objections from the sheriff. That the usual humor is in short supply may disappoint longtime fans, but some tasty-sounding recipes will ease the pain. Those who don’t mind a darker edge to their cozies will be satisfied. Agent: Sam Pinkus, Keystone Literary. (Nov.)