Jessica Askew, baking rebel with the recipe for uncovering the truth, is embracing her literary roots by catering the revived Little Quillington Shakespeare Festival. She and her assistant, Hattie, are hard at work in the tearoom, enthusiastically experimenting with authentic, if slightly strange, Elizabethan banquet recipes.

But life in the quaint village starts to imitate high drama. Between the rival acting troupes, a mysterious tabby cat that is the spitting image of Miss Marple, and Hattie claiming she’s found flowers with magical properties, Jessica is already struggling to keep the curtain from falling. The situation hits fever pitch when her best friend, Pippa, finds herself at war with the fiercely ambitious Mrs Merdle, whose schemes threaten to destroy the entire event.

Just as the banquet begins, a dead body appears in the middle of the feast... and then promptly vanishes! With the festival threatened with cancellation, Jessica must race to solve the perplexing disappearance. Is this tragedy linked to the Askew family secret she's so close to uncovering?

Can this sweet-toothed sleuth sift through the theatrical chaos and uncover the truth before the killer takes their final bow and all her hard work goes to waste?

Find out in The Taming of the Stew, book seven of the Parchment Paper Mysteries, perfect for fans of Agatha Frost, HY Hanna, and Ellie Alexander. This clean read includes recipes for two traditional English bakes and features the antics of Matilda Swift's real-life cats, Madame Poirot and Miss Marple.

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