Where's the Beef? A Chautauqua Mystery: Mimi Goldman Chautauqua Mysteries, #2

By Deb Pines

Where's the Beef is the second book, and only novelette, in Deb Pines' traditional whodunit Chautauqua Mysteries featuring the wise and witty reporter sleuth of a certain age Mimi Goldman.

"An Agatha Christie for the text-message age," IndieReader calls the series.

After solving multiple murders in her splashy 2013 debut, Mimi Goldman, the lovable New York City expat/single mom/Chautauquan Daily reporter, is back!

This time, she faces a more lighthearted challenge: Where's the beef? Or, really: What's become of meat deliveries that keep disappearing from a locked kitchen in the Rosebriar, a rooming-house in the historic Chautauqua Institution?

Instantly, Mimi finds multiple suspects including a bitter Rosebriar guest, a prankster delivery kid and a shadowy employee. She even finds a little romance, in Walt Dellaria, a sexy engineer and ruthless Scrabble match.

But the central question, Where's the Beef?, is a tough-to-solve puzzle. A twist at the end makes this whodunit also a memorable howdunit and unputdownable quick read.

Fans of Agatha Christie and Louise Penny and "Only Murders in the Building" will enjoy this twist-filled tale that one reviewer called "a locked-room mystery that kept me guessing until the end."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deb Pines
• Release date: Jan 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201198152

Book preview

Introduction

Mimi Goldman, the intrepid Chautauqua mystery sleuth and Chautauquan Daily reporter, is back!!

After her splashy debut, solving multiple murders in the top-selling 2013 novel, In the Shadow of Death: A Chautauqua Murder Mystery, Mimi faces a more lighthearted mystery in this 2014 novelette called Where’s the Beef?

Inspired by traditional locked-room mysteries, Where’s the Beef? features a baffling crime in an apparently impenetrable space.

The crime’s not murder. The stakes aren’t as high. The stakes, in fact, are steaks—or, really, pork products—that keep disappearing from a locked fictional rooming-house kitchen in the Chautauqua Institution, a real-life summer arts and adult-learning community in far Western New York State.

The story is a whodunit and howdunit readers can solve along with Mimi. Good luck! Have fun!

And thanks to everyone—friends, family, and dear Chautauquans—for your support. Please stay in touch.

All the best,

Deb

[e-mail]

https://www.debpines.com

1

Mimi Goldman was back in Chautauqua in July 2013 for less than 20 minutes before she was roped into another mystery.

She dumped her bags at the Rosebriar, the rooming house where she was staying rent-free on Roberts behind the bookstore. She hurried out the door, intending to take Vincent Avenue, around Miller Park, to the lake. But she didn’t get far.

Mimi? Mimi Goldman.

Joe Wentworth—Mimi’s old Chautauquan Daily boss who’d just rehired her—was chasing after her with a yappy black terrier like Toto from The Wizard of Oz.

How are you? Joe asked when he caught up. How was the trip?

Pretty painless, Mimi said. Thank God. Great to see you and Chautauqua again. And I can’t thank you and your mom enough. I wish you’d let me pay something. I just—

Please, Joe said. I’m lucky to get you on such short notice. And Mother feels lucky too, because . . . Well, that’s why I’m . . . She has a favor to ask.

Is everything okay? Mimi asked.

Nothing that I thought couldn’t wait. But . . .

The dog, impatient, too, tugged on his leash, then started barking like crazy.

Baby, please, Joe said. Shush.

When Baby wouldn’t shut up, Joe slipped him a doggie treat.

Mother has a bit of a mystery she was hoping you’d help her solve, Joe said. Nothing violent or dangerous, he added quickly. More an aggravation. Something she thought that, given your expertise, you could help her get to the bottom of.

Of course, Mimi said. Want to tell me more?

Mother would rather tell you herself, Joe said. So why don’t I take Baby here for his walk? That’ll give you time to freshen up. Then the three of us can reconvene at, say, 4:30, before the dinner rush? For an early glass of wine on the Rosebriar porch?

2

In Mimi’s 16-year absence, Chautauqua, appearance-wise, had barely changed.

The quirky place—which began in 1874 as a retreat for Methodist Sunday