Dial M For Meat Loaf: A Culinary Mystery [Large Print] [Paperback]

Ellen Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 2004

As Minnesota housewives race to meet the deadline for the Times Register's meat loaf contest, an unsavory small-towner named Kirby Runbeck is blown to smithereens by a car bomb. Days later, the town's former mayor, near death from a stroke, confesses to the killing. His family vehemently denies it. But when Sophie Greenway, food maven and friend of the family, happens upon an old snapshot, she wonders . . .

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Ellen Hart and her Sophie Greenway mysteries

SLICE AND DICE
"Mouth-watering . . . A smorgasbord of devilment."
--Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

"The pace quickly bubbles from simmer to boil. . . . The complexity of Hart's novel is admirable."
--Publishers Weekly

THIS LITTLE PIGGY WENT TO MURDER
"Strong characters and a rich Lake Superior setting make this solidly constructed mystery hard to put down. Another winner for Ellen Hart!"
--M. D. Lake

FOR EVERY EVIL
"Another splendid specimen of the classical mystery story, nicely updated and full of interesting and believable characters."
--The Purloined Letter

"A dilly . . . A fair-play plot and contemporary characters that leap off the page . . . Stir in Martha Grimes with P. D. James and add a dash of Christie and Amanda Cross and you begin to get the idea: a cozy with a brain."
--Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

Praise for Ellen Hart and her Jane Lawless series

HALLOWED MURDER
"Hart's crisp, elegant writing and atmosphere [are] reminiscent of the British detective style, but she has a nicer sense of character, confrontation, and sparsely utilized violence. . . . Hallowed Murder is as valuable for its mainstream influences as for its sexual politics."
--Mystery Scene

VITAL LIES
"This compelling whodunit has the psychological maze of a Barbara Vine mystery and the feel of Agatha Christie. . . . Hart keeps even the most seasoned mystery buff baffled until the end."
--Publishers Weekly

STAGE FRIGHT
"Hart deftly turns the spotlight on the dusty secrets and shadowy souls of a prominent theater family. The resulting mystery is worthy of a standing ovation."
--Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

A KILLING CURE
"A real treat . . . Secret passageways, a coded ledger, a mysterious group known only as the Chamber, experimental drugs, blackmail, sexual assault, betrayal: all the ingredients of a good whodunit."
--Lambda Book Report

A SMALL SACRIFICE
"A smart and shocking thriller."
--The Minnesota Daily

FAINT PRAISE
"Packed with mystery and scheming characters, Faint Praise is one of the year's best. It's no wonder Ellen Hart is everyone's favorite author."
--R. D. Zimmerman --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

RECIPE FOR MURDER

As Minnesota housewives race to meet the deadline for the Times Register?s meat loaf contest, an unsavory small-towner named Kirby Runbeck is blown to smithereens by a car bomb.

Days later, the town?s former mayor, John Washburn, near death from a stroke, confesses to the killing. His wife and two children vehemently deny it, but when Sophie Greenway, food maven and friend of the family, happens upon an old snapshot, a bundle of letters, and a tattoo of a red-eyed snake, she wonders about Washburn?s innocence. Unlike the recipe for a prize meat loaf, this murder is seasoned with spicy secrets and a generous portion of scandal, which Sophie dares to bring to a roiling boil. . . .
--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Publishing (December 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158724845X
• ISBN-13: 978-1587248450
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,421,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ellen Hart is the author of twenty-five crime novels in two different series.?? She is a five-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, a three-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Popular Fiction, a three-time winner of the Golden Crown Literary Award, a recipient of the Alice B Medal, and was made an official GLBT Literary Saint at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans in 2005. ?? Entertainment Weekly??named her one of the "101 Movers and Shakers in the Gay Entertainment Industry." For the past twelve years, Ellen has taught "An Introduction to Writing the Modern Mystery" through the The Loft Literary Center, the largest independent writing community in the nation. Ellen's newest Sophie Greenway mystery is No Reservations Required, (Ballantine, June 2005). The Mirror and the Mask, the seventeenth Jane Lawless mystery, was released by St. Martin's/Minotaur in November 2009.?? Ellen lives in Minneapolis with her partner of 32 years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tasty Entree for Mystery Buffs!, October 31, 2001

By 

Eleanor V. Miller (Henderson, NV United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dial M for Meat Loaf (Mass Market Paperback)

Having grown up in Minneapolis, I've always enjoyed the way in which Ellen Hart capitalizes on what I think of as the uniquely Minnesotan mindset to provide a logical albeit somewhat locally-skewed rationale for her characters' attitudes and behaviors. That's why I found it not at all unusual that irascible Cora Runbeck...her ne'er-do-well husband's sudden demise from a car bomb starts the plot action of the book off with a bang!...would take time out from her own somewhat nefarious plans for blackmail and mayhem to sit down and submit her special "No-Nonsense Meatloaf" recipe to the Minneapolis Times-Register's contest. Like the dish that this delightful read celebrates, it's exactly that kind of marvelous mixture of off-beat humor and action-intense realism that makes Ellen Hart's novels such fun!

Series heroine Sophie Greenway (wife of radio personality Bram Baldric, owner of the historic Maxwell Plaza hotel in St. Paul and recently-appointed restaurant critic for the Times-Register) together with her friend, Bernice Washburn, its food editor, are supposed to serve as judges for this event, but tasting takes a backseat to detecting when (spoiler). Plato, his son, is especially distraught, but it is Bernice who begs Sophie to draw upon her talents as an amateur sleuth to try and unravel the why's behind this unlikely scenario and uncover the real murderer. Her only starting point? A series of puzzling letters that (spoiler). Ms. Hart's ingenuity and clever plotting provides clues aplenty, but unraveling former Mayor Washburn's past almost leads to another tragedy before the trail leads Sophie to the heart of the matter and justice can be served up piping hot! As always, character-driven plotting and a tight, suspenseful pace kept me happily involved in the lives of Sophie and her family and friends, and the included recipes are pure lagniappe. Meatloaf may be plain cooking, but Ellen Hart dishes up haute cuisine in cozies.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly comfort food . . ., February 14, 2002

By 

kellytwo "kellytwo" (cleveland hts, ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dial M for Meat Loaf (Mass Market Paperback)

Anyone who thinks coincidence has no place in fiction has obviously not read the books of Ellen Hart. She uses coincidence to trigger the plot in several of her books, but none better than the totally believable set-up here.

Sophie Greenaway is now, in addition to general manager and owner of the Maxfield Plaza Hotel in Minneapolis, the restaurant reviewer for the Star-Tribune. Her immediate supervisor, the food editor, Berniece Washburn, is also a friend. When Berniece needs to go home to Rose Hill to visit her father, ill in the hospital from a severe stroke, Sophie offers to drive. A sudden summer storm results in her having to stay the night in the home of Berniece's parents. There, Sophie stumbles over a photo of a young couple, dating from years earlier. Obviously, the photo is of Berniece's parents, but-wait! Sophie recognizes the man from her own youth, and his name then was not John Washburn.

From this ordinary beginning, a tale of multiple lies begins and takes over the waking hours of Sophie and her son, Rudy. Not to mention several of the inhabitants of Rose Hill, and other towns scattered through the upper Great Lakes area. Throughout is the back story of the newspaper's contest for the best meatloaf recipe--the top three are included in the book, and look delicious!

Unfortunately, the ending of the book and solution of the mystery, while tying up all the loose ends, etc., seems awfully rushed. The epilogue almost doesn't even belong to this book, it's so 'out-of-left-field' in content. And that's the only reason for the four star rating, as this author is usually 5 stars, just like the very best restaurants!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Secrets and Meat Loaf, September 2, 2003

By 

Dawn Dowdle "Mystery Lovers Corner reviewer" (Lynchburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dial M for Meat Loaf (Mass Market Paperback)

Sophie Greenway is the new restaurant review editor at the Times Register. She shares the job with her son Rudy. Her husband Bram Baldric is a radio personality. Bram interviews Bernice Washburn, author of the forthcoming All That Glitters, a study of café society in America. She is also the food editor at the Times Register. She would not agree to do the interview unless Sophie agreed to come too. Bernice was terrified of radio interviews.

During the interview, Bernice announced that the Times Register was holding a statewide competition and asking everyone to send in their favorite meat loaf recipe.

Cora Runbeck, recently widowed when Kirby's truck blew up in the garage when he started it, new she had the best meat loaf recipe. She'd recently had catarac surgery and hadn't used her recipes for ages. When she went looking for her recipe box, she found Kirby had moved it. After much searching, she found it. But inside were a couple surprises Kirby had hidden there.

John Washburn, former mayor, had a stroke and was near death. In the hospital he finally regains consciousness and writes a cryptic note to his family. Unfortunately he is confessing to a murder and his doctor happens to be standing there and sees the note. So, the police are called. The family keeps saying he didn't know what he was writing. They wouldn't let him write any more notes.

Bernice is John's son. Sophie gives her a ride to the hospital one day and ends up spending the night due to a terrible storm. Through some information she finds, she starts questioning John's identity. As she begins looking into it, things are definitely not what they seem. What should she do with this information.

Sophie and Bram own the Maxfield Plaza and live in an apartment there. Her parents sold it to them for $1 when they decided to retire.

I like this series because Sophie always gets herself into some situations. Bram doesn't play a major role in the investigations, but is always an integral part in the story. Their relationship always adds to the story line. Then there's her gay son Rudy and his grown daughter Margie. Both play important roles in most of the stories.

This story was well crafted. She had enough people involved to keep you wondering which one did it. I wasn't disappointed with the ending, nor could I figure it out too early.

The Minneapolis setting is interesting too. I like the fact they live in the hotel. It really adds character to the story.

I highly recommend this book and series. If you like food, you will like this fun series.