Since I’ve started this blog, the majority of my reading has been culinary cozy mysteries. I’ve been astounded at the amount of authors and books I’ve come to know and enjoy, including Edith Maxwell aka Maddie Day with her two series, the Local Foods Mysteries and the Country Store Mysteries. I knew Edith also wrote a third series, the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and while I hadn’t read any (because of my huge blog reading pile) I was intrigued. Next to mysteries and suspense, historical fiction is my favorite. When I had the chance to meet Edith at the Malice Domestic conference in April, she was kind enough to gift me a copy of her newest release, CALLED TO JUSTICE. Once I finally had the chance to start reading it, I couldn’t put it down!
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The reader is transported to Amesbury, Massachusetts in 1888. Oh my, what an eye opening book this was and makes me realize how much we take every day conveniences and medical, technological, and social advances for granted! The author brings the life of a midwife to full view in an era before technology, modern medicine and hospitals. The perils that can befall the newborn and new mothers alike are treated with compassion and grace. I found myself hoping for the best in each birth the protagonist, Rose Carroll, attended and my heart stopped when things didn’t go as expected. The author also gives the reader a charming peek into the Quaker’s lifestyle along with an uglier look at the bigotry and prejudices against other races and against women during that time period. I think it’s a good reminder, despite all the political and social upheaval our country is experiencing, that we have made great strides in becoming a better nation, a better people.
Edith expertly weaves the historical details and social mindset of the late 1800’s into a good mystery that keeps a reader guessing about who would have wanted to kill the unwed, pregnant teen. Rose Carroll is a believable protagonist as she searches for justice, not only for the murdered girl but for the wrongly accused man. I enjoyed Rose’s character very much — she is a good role model not only for the 1800’s but for current day too! She isn’t afraid to defy conventional customs governing young ladies and instead focuses on doing what she knows to be the right thing to do. All in all, CALLED TO JUSTICE is a fascinating read with a satisfying mystery!
While the book does not have recipes, Rose prepares several dishes including Sugar Cookies. Given the time period and the plainness of the Quaker faith, I have to assume that 1) there wasn’t room in their tiny icebox to chill cookie dough; 2) she would not have rolled out and cut the dough with cookie cutters and decorated them; 3) they would evoke a homey simpleness yet provide comfort to those who ate them. So, I developed a quick No-Chill Sugar Cookie recipe using vanilla with plenty of butter and plain sugar. They bake up soft and are the perfect accompaniment to a cup of hot tea or coffee. Of course my granddaughters are all about color: frosting and sprinkles make the cookie! I mixed up an easy glaze using confectioners’ sugar and just enough water to make the sugar spreadable, tinted part of it pink, and sprinkled the tops with colorful jimmies and nonpareils. It was the perfect way to celebrate the start of their summer!
A huge thank you to Edith Maxwell for providing a copy of CALLED TO JUSTICE for one lucky winner! Contest ends Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 11:59 pm PST and due to shipping, is limited to U.S. residents. Please use the Rafflecopter box located below the recipe to enter. The winner will be announced on this page and on Cinnamon & Sugar’s Facebook page, as well as notified by email (so check your spam folder!)
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2-1/2 cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar, for rolling
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
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In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes at medium speed. Or use a hand-held electric mixer on high.
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Add in the egg and beat until well combined.
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Add in the vanilla extract and mix well.
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With the mixer running on the lowest speed, carefully add the flour mixture and stir just until it is incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
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Place the extra granulated sugar into a shallow bowl.
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Using a tablespoon scoop, form dough into 1 to 1-1/2 inch balls and then roll in the granulated sugar.
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Place on baking sheet, about 2" apart. Bake for 9 -11 minutes, or until cookies have started to crinkle and dough looks set.
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Cool cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
You can make a simple glaze mixing confectioners' sugar with a bit of water, until it reaches a spreadable consistency. Add food coloring as desired and top with your favorite sprinkles.
Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.
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I was provided a copy of this book with the hopes I would review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Like many little girls, I wondered about Pioneer life a la Laura.
I enjoy following different eras and wonder what it would be like to live back then. When I was a child my family
visited Tucson, Arizona and a dear friend took us into the mountains where there were mines we were able to
explore. This perked my interest in the time period when the gold rush occurred. So fund to imagine what my
life would have been like during times like that.
I do imagine living in another time period – when things were similar and people worked together for a common goal. There wasn’t all the technology to do ones thinking and folks didn’t step on others back to get to the top. I guess that’s why I love Amish stories. It’s like a mixture of present and past – happening now but holding true to the values of the past.
After seeing American Graffiti for the first time at the theater I had wished I had grown up in that time period. Whenever I went to costume parties I dressed up in my mom’s clothes from the 50’s, she even saved the shoes she wore when they got married. She helped me do my hair. I had so much fun.
I read a lot of historical mysteries/fiction and watch period dramas so, yes, I think about living in other read. Of course, it’s easy to romanticize it all, and I must remind myself of the real life difficulties. And, I don’t think there are many women my age who did not want to be Laura Ingalls Wilder as girls. Thank you for the chance to win.
Have on occasion thought about being in a different time period. And culture. Same with reading science fiction.imaging what it would be like and hoping i’d be sensible and caring. When younger us kids would pretend to be in different periods and cultures. We would make our communities out of boxes and sheets and whatever else was handy. Make believe was a big part of our early years. We didn’t watch much TV our world was mainly books and the out doors. Westerns was the thing. My Dad’s head mechanic was a young Apache chief. (40’s) He taught us some of their culture and the difference between the ‘white eyes’ pronunciation of Apache, coyote and other words and their pronunciation. We did a lot of western types and English royalty, Sherlock Holmes and Viking, Norse type stuff. Actually, anything that fired the imagination
I’ve always been fascinated with the 17th and 18th centuries but stop imagining what it would be like when I realize I would not have survived childhood without modern medicine.
Cookies look delicious.
Book sounds wonderful – have
to put it on my list.
thanks.
All of the time. And the cookies look delicious.
I wonder how adventurous I would have been back when out West was being settled.
Love, love, love sugar cookies—I’ll have to try that recipe.
I love sugar cookies so i am going to leave my hubby hints to make them one day. Thank you for the offering of Edith Maxwells book as they are so good and i chew at my nails waiting for the next one that she writes. When i read the first one in this series i often thought about what she had to go thru going from house to house on foot watching her patients going thru having a baby.
I always wondered what it would be like to live in the West in the late 1800’s
This sound like a series I need to add to my TBR list. I’ll try out the cookies with my grandkids next week.
Yes, I would have liked to live in the late 1800’s it was a simpler time, but I would miss my modern appliances.
I have dreamt about other time periods ever since I read Anne of Green Gables. I went to dreaming of life with Laura Ingalls and Jo March. I still enjoy dreaming of it now with books that take me back and also by visiting historical places. Where I live across the channel is Douglas Island where the Treadwell Mines had a community. I often go by the ruins and imagine what life was like. I sit on the beach, which is located by the ruins, looking out at the ocean and dream about being a woman coming to Juneau-Douglas during that time period.
This book sounds so interesting. I read a lot of Amish romances and mysteries. I’m fascinated by the community. I think it is amazing how they hold to the old ways and adapt to life today. I think a Quaker series will delight me as much as the Amish ones do.
I just bought a roll of butter so I’m all set for cookie baking. Thank you for sharing a sugar cookie recipe that doesn’t need to be chilled or rolled and cut with cutters. Sometimes you are in a hurry and you just need a cookie. Haha. I’m thinking these will be great to make for readathon weekends and especially at Christmas when time isn’t always available.
I have often imagined living in another time. Imaginge moving west and finding snow in June .Would love the book hope I win.
I was and still am a fan of the old spooky soap opera Dark Shadows so when they would do time travel, I would try and imagine what it was like to actually live back in 1795 or 1897. I decided that as awesome as the outfits and furnishings were, clothes would be a major pain especially in hot weather, lol. So I don’t think I’d want to leave present time. Aside from not having internet, I couldn’t survive life in a dress. I’d have to pretend I was a boy so I could wear pants and be comfortable LOL
I always wonder what it would be like to live in different time period!
I do imagine living in different time periods — Russia right before the Russian Revolution, Victorian England and Newport, Rhode Island during the Gilded Age (I have a feeling I’d need to be wealthy for all three time periods to really appreciate them though) ~
I have imagined what it would be like to live in another era.
I visited Williamsburg, Virginia, several times. I love this town!
Yes I wanted to live in a different time period. I wanted to live in Mayberry with Andy and Aunt Bea.
It’s easy to wax nostalgic about “the good old days” until we really think about it.
I think it was Randy Newman who said, “The good old day are good and gone. That’s why they’re good–because they’re gone.”
I love reading about Victorian England during Jane Austen’s time, but I’ve never really wanted to live then.
Sometimes I do imagine living in another time period. But not sure which period i want to live in, But I would love to win a print copy Called To Justice. Thank you for the chance.
Loved the first one
Having a vivid imagination, I can’t count the number of times I have imagined living in another time period. (Pesky details like the fact that I would have died during my toddlerhood because of the Type 1 Diabetes I was diagnosed with is conveniently ignored, of course. 😉 )
I enjoy historical mysteries and have read several of her other books. Every once in a while, I wonder what it would be like to live without so many of our modern “conveniences” but not sure I’d do too well in another era.. Thanks for the chance to win!
I have always wondered what it would be like to live in the 1800s. I’m sure I would be miserable with no air conditioning but I am fascinated by the way people lived. They were hard workers, took care of their neighbors and seemed content with what they had.
Yes, but the older I get the happier I am right here!
I have often wondered what it would have been like to live in another time.
The cookies look really good! I’ll have to try this recipe out with my kids. The book sounds really good too! Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy!
Ever wish i lived in another time?
Frequently!, all different times and places. i guess that is why i like reading old books and historicals
I loved the thought of what my constitute how Friends’ in the 1880s would have baked sugar cookies. Having an ancestor in the late 1790s disowned for frollicking, I can imaging the restraints, but thought they had lessened in the past century.
I’ve always wondered what it would have been like to live in the Antebellum South. I enjoy reading about that time period and wonder what it would be like to live a life of privilege in that era.
Love the sugar cookie recipe. I’m 82 and so live through a lot of things already . I can’t get enough about WWll and the accident with the navy ship and container ship really hit home. My daddy went down with a sister ship after his ship was hit by a Japanese airplane. All aboard where saved and after reaching a sister ship he was sent below to sleep and some of the younger men went back to their ship to get papers and as they were returning to the recue ship a torpedo hit it and all were lost..
Living in another century and imagining it … is what history majors do…so count me in! I know there would be hardships but I would love to have a day and go into the eighteenth century and another day and go into the nineteenth…sigh…the closest I could get to it was museum work and I loved it. Thank you for the chance.
Marilyn ewatvess@yahoo.com
I love learning about different historical eras. Since I enjoy my modern creature comforts reading is the way for me to go. I wouldn’t have liked to live without running water, indoor toilets, central heat or air conditioning! This sounds like a great series to check out.
Sometimes I have thought it would be nice to live in a “simpler” time without all the technology we have today. I sometimes hate being tied down by my smartphone. Then I remember the technology we have – washing machines, cars, airplanes, electric or gas stoves, hot water heaters, furnaces, etc, etc and am glad I live in this time.
Sure, but I would miss the technological advances & conveniences that we have now.
I have read some of your books and I love how you take me back to time way before me. I think if I did not know what I know now and the uses of electricity and everything, I could do it. I would not miss the advances of today because I would never had known of them! Thank you for your writing and keep on.
Yes, I have. If I had the opportunity to live in a different time period, I would choose the time when Germany was at it’s best. I absolutely love to dresses that the women wore, I believe they were called leiderhosen (please excuse my spelling). I love the dancing with the long ribbons on batons, etc. They just seemed so happy.