L.M. Ford

This is the second time I have dipped my toe into the cosy mystery genre and it won't be my last, I think it's fair to say I'm addicted.

No Pepper, Please is the second novel in the Amanda Danvers series but as each book is stand-alone can be read as a novel in and of itself and refers back to book one just enough so you know what's happening, but not too much that it takes the focus away from this story. In other words absolute perfect synchronicity.

No Pepper, Please is set in and around Amanda's step-mother's cafe. The chef, Betty, is divorcing her husband who still attends daily for his breakfast. He hates pepper so Betty liberally applies each meal with enough to make an elephant sneeze.
When his mean is also laced with arsenic, the suspicion naturally lies with Betty.

Amanda plays amateur sleuth to uncover the source of the poison, but will her findings lead to Betty's imprisonment or is it someone else entirely?

To find out you will have to read the book!

Growing up, L.M. Ford had no overwhelming passion for any particular thing--except reading. When offered a class called Humanities in high school, she decided that would be interesting, although she didn't know what Humanities meant. Encountering a talented teacher with a love for the subject, L.M. deeply appreciated the study of the arts, majored in Humanities for her university degree, and still couldn't give anyone a short concise definition. There were two things she disliked intensely--writing and talking in front of people, the only exception being oral storytelling to kids. Ironically, she's ended up in a career with constant writing and regular speaking to groups. After gaining experience, she's found neither to be quite the horror she'd expected. Despite her lessening dislike of writing, she never intended to become an author. For years she left writing to her siblings, some of whom are traditionally published. However, as an amateur genealogist, she constantly urges people to write down their family stories to preserve them. For herself, she started with an ancestor's childhood. In recording the wealth of oral tradition she'd received, L.M. realized that if she added certain details, conversations, etc., "this" might form the chapter of a novel. Her first book had been born. Submitting to publishers proved interesting as she received a great many personal letters from editors indicating how much they like the story, but they couldn't fit it into their publishing niche. She finally decided to put the book into Indie. Originally titled The Eleventh Child, she published it as The Thanksgiving Child, which may have been a mistake as some people think it's a holiday story, either from the U.S. or another country. Writing proved to be like one of those romance tales about enemies to lovers. Having almost hated the process, L.M. is now thoroughly in love. From her first book, she has gone on to write a great many more. Though also traditionally published, she very much enjoys the creative individuality of Indie for both reading and publishing. Her genres include cozy mysteries, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, folk and fairy tales, romance, contemporary, historical, non-fiction, poetry and others yet to be explored. The challenge is getting them published, because she enjoys the creation of the story far more than the proofreading and editing phase.