Welcome Back Author Darci Hannah and a Giveaway!

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Last year I was published in a collection, Irish Coffee Murder, built around Saint Patrick’s Day. I had a blast writing it. I was excited to see that Friend of the Wickeds Darci Hannah has a book just out with the same wonderful theme. Naturally, I invited her to visit us here on the blog.

Take it away, Darci!

It’s such a pleasure to be a guest today on The Wickeds Blog. Thank you, Barb, for inviting me. I love that we both have new release that came out at the end of January. Being so cold, snowy, and dreary in the north, January is my favorite month for reading and catching up on all those books in my TBR pile! While Barb’s Easter Basket Murder novella centers around that quintessential springtime holiday, Easter, my new release, Murder at the Blarney Bash, takes place on a cold St. Patrick’s Day in the picturesque Michigan lakeside village of Beacon Harbor. And yes, there are leprechauns in it too (wink-wink).

Murder at the Blarney Bash is my third holiday themed cozy mystery.  I’ve written about Christmas and Halloween, but I never gave much thought to writing about St. Patrick’s Day until my editor floated the idea to me. I’m sorry to think that the first image that popped into my mind as he was talking about St. Patrick’s Day, besides a vision of the leprechaun on the box of Lucky Charms, was a really great loaf of Irish Soda Bread.

Now, at this point I think it’s helpful to know that I write the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series, largely because I love to bake, and also because l have a real fondness for Michigan lighthouses. But baked goods are a focal point of my series. This is because I write about a bakery in a renovated old lighthouse. Whenever I think of a new adventure in my fictitious town of Beacon Harbor, often the first thing that pops into my mind is a baked good associated with the holiday or time of year I’m writing about, and the whole time my editor was talking about St. Paddy’s Day, I was thinking about soda bread.

Growing up, my family celebrated St. Patrick’s Day like every other family that wasn’t Irish. My mom would make the traditional corned beef and cabbage supper, with boiled carrots and potatoes. To be honest, it wasn’t something we looked forward to as kids. However, my mom would always serve that once-a-year dinner with a loaf of really good dark rye bread, probably because she was Swedish and didn’t know that Irish Soda Bread even existed. It was also because with that dark rye bread on the table, and a jar of good mustard, along with a plate of sliced pickles, and slices of Swiss cheese, my brothers and dad had all the ingredients they needed to make their favorite St. Paddy’s Day deli sandwich—the corned beef and Swiss on dark rye! As for the boiled veggies and cabbage, they were regarded as garnish for the corned beef, something colorful to look at but not to eat. Because they were garnish, it wasn’t unusual to see a bag of potato chips on the table about halfway through the meal. A guy needs his meat and potatoes after all. 

It wasn’t until my youngest brother was married that I had my first bite of Irish Soda Bread. His wife, a fabulous cook, had made it for St. Patrick’s Day, and it was just about the best thing I had ever tasted on that holiday. She was gracious enough to give me her recipe, and ever since that eye-opening meal our festive St. Patrick’s Day supper of corned beef and cabbage is eaten exactly the way the Irish intended, placed on a plate with a large slice of butter-slathered Irish Soda Bread beside it. It certainly is a day worth celebrating.

If you would like a copy of this delicious Irish Soda Bread, please click on the link below.

https://www.darcihannah.com/recipes

Readers: I would love to give away a copy of Murder at the Blarney Bash to one of you awesome readers. To enter to win, please tell me what your favorite St. Patrick’s Day treat is. US only please. The winner will be chosen at random on February 9th.

Wishing you the luck of the Irish!

About Darci Hannah

Darci Hannah is the bestselling author of the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series, the soon to be released Food & Spirits Mystery Series, the Very Cherry Mystery Series, and two works of historical fiction. Darci grew up in the Midwest and currently lives in a small town in Michigan with her husband and two dogs. Darci is a lifelong lover of the Great Lakes, a natural wonder that inspires many of her stories. Passionate about family, dogs, food, baking, history, books, lighthouses, laughter, good conversations, coffee, and the paranormal, Darci feels especially blessed to have found a way to combine her interests in the stories she writes. It brings her great joy to be able to share them with you.

Connect with Darci at www.darcihannah.com. Instagram: @authordarcihannah. Facebook: Author Darci Hannah. Twitter: @darci_hannah. YouTube: @darcihannah. You can even listen to Darci and her sons on the Nearly Literate Podcast @ https://rss.com/podcasts/motherboy/  or Watch the Nearly Literate Podcast on YouTube @NearlyLiteratePodcast 

About Murder at the Blarney Bash

Follow the aroma of shamrock sugar cookies to the Beacon Bakeshop, a lighthouse on the shores of Lake Michigan where amateur sleuth Lindsey Bakewell is busy preparing for Beacon Harbor’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities – with a little help from her adorable Newfoundland, Wellington, of course!

Lindsey is baking up a storm—shamrock sugar cookies, Guinness chocolate cupcakes, Irish soda bread—for the well-timed grand opening of the Irish import gift shop, the Blarney Stone, owned by her boyfriend’s uncle, Finnigan O’Connor, recently relocated from the Emerald Isle.

But it’s Uncle Finn himself who seems full of blarney when he gleefully reveals a pot of real gold he claims he stole from an actual leprechaun. And Finn’s fortune takes a turn for the worse when he’s arrested for the bludgeoning of a small unidentified man dressed as a leprechaun—the murder weapon alleged to be his now-missing shillelagh.

Eccentric Uncle Finn may enjoy believing he’s outwitted a leprechaun, but he would never be so deluded as to clobber one with his walking stick. Now Lindsey will need more than the luck of the Irish to seize a golden opportunity to catch the real killer . . .

To purchase a copy at your favorite bookstore, click the link below. Thank you!

Book Details
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Published by Barbara Ross

Barbara Ross is the author of twelve Maine Clambake Mystery novels and six novellas. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.com

41 Thoughts

  1. Welcome, Darci! Yummy Irish soda bread – with Irish butter. I like to sip a dram of Irish whiskey on the day, too – I’m part Flaherty, after all. Congratulations on the new book.

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    1. Thank you, Edith! Oh, a dram of Irish whiskey! That’s right up my husbands alley. As for me, it has to be Irish coffee with a topping of whipped cream!!

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  3. Thank you for the recipe! We do like a boiled dinner for St. Patrick’s Day, and I plan on making your sister-in-law’s soda bread, so that will be a new treat! Like you, I grew up in a non-Irish family, so I don’t remember any kind of traditional St. Patrick’s Day meals.

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    1. Thank you for posting! Most of us here like the traditional boiled dinner for St. Patrick’s Day, but I have one son who avoids it, lol! Hope you like the soda bread!

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  4. As a child, St Patrick’s day meant cut out shamrock cookies decorated with green icing and edible decorations. Our daughter loved anything mint. That meant there was something green (maybe with chocolate chips) and definitely mint flavored that was made – cake, cookies or ice cream. Although I’m not fond of boiled cabbage, as an adult, I’ve learned that fried cabbage is yummy. I’ve often made sure it hit the plate on St. Patrick’s Day supper. 🙂

    Thank you for the fabulous chance to win a copy of MURDER AT THE BLARNEY BASH! I would love the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book on my TBR list.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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    1. I love that you made shamrock cut out cookies! I love a good sugar cookie. And I’m going to have to try this fried cabbage you speak of! It sounds really good! Thanks for commenting!

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    2. I love that you made shamrock sugar cookies! I’m a sucker for a good sugar cookie, but what a fun way to celebrate as a child. I’m also a fan of mint! Mint chocolate chip ice cream is my goto! Also, good tip on that fried cabbage. I’ll definitely give it a try! Thanks for your comment!

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  5. Congratulations on the new release!
    And thank you for the Irish Soda Bread recipe, I’ll be making that one this year.
    I’m not in the US, so don’t enter me in the giveaway.
    I like to have a wee dram of whiskey on St. Patrick’s Day.

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    1. Thank you! I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as we do here. Honestly, it’s really the only part of the meal my sons look forward too, lol! And cheers to that dram of whiskey!

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    1. Thank you!! Well, tell your husband it’s never too late to adopt a St. Pat’s Day tradition, lol. All you need is a good loaf of Irish soda bread, some butter, and an Irish coffee to celebrate the day. I’d embrace that tradition myself, lol.

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  7. Since I am of Italian descent, we didn’t really celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. However, I can’t resist a good slab of corned beef! Congratulations on the new release!

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  9. Congratulations on the new book! We aren’t Irish but I do remember having green beer back in my 20’s. And I still like shamrock-shaped sugar cookies. ckmbeg (at) gmail (dot) com

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  10. I can’t wait to read this new book!! St. Patrick’s day is the best day to eat corned beef cabbage with potatoes & butter. Yummy!

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    1. Thank you! I think you’re going to really enjoy this book. It’s a lot of fun. I only mention corned beef and cabbage once in it, I think! Thanks for commenting!

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  11. Cabbage leaves which are grilled are delectable and healthy. Cabbage wraps are wonderful. Congratulations! The book looks entertaining.

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    1. Me too, Christine! I love it right out of the oven with a little butter on it. The next day we toast it. I might need to make some soon. All this talk of soda bread is making me hungry!

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  13. We usually do corned beef and cabbage. For dessert I like to make something green. This year will be cut out shamrock cookies with green icing!!

    Thanks for the chance! Love the book cover!!

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  14. My mother always cooked corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a fond memory of what it was like to grow up in an Irish Catholic family!

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  16. Congratulations on your latest. Sounds like a winner. My mother made corned beef and cabbage every St. Paddy’s day. We all loved it, but I didn’t continue the tradition. Think I’ll try the soda bread though!

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  18. My mother always cooked corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day because my dad was Irish. His parents had immegrated from Ireland around 1900. I didn’t particularly like it. When my husband and I first traveled to Ireland in the 1970s we had our first taste of Irish soda bread and loved it! I try to buy authentic Irish soda bread every St. Patrick’s Day now.

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  20. I love Irish soda bread with a good cold Kerrygold butter to spread on it. aprilbluetx at yahoo dot com

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  22. I actually like the cabbage cooked with the corned beef. And then the corned beef in a good sandwich. The soda bread is super as as toast for breakfast.

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  23. My family never cooked Corned Beef and Cabbage when I was growing up, even though my father loved anything Irish and the song “Danny Boy” which we played at his funeral. But once I got married, Hubby Dearest cooked that every year. We love it.

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  24. My favorite St. Patrick’s day treat is corned beef, cabbage and onions. We boil it on the stove. I look forward to seeing you in March at Gathering Volume’s Bookstore in Perrysburg, Ohio. God bless you.

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