Karen’s Killer Fixin’s **AUTHOR SPECIAL** with RUTH MORGAN!

Welcome to my Friday bonus feature called Karen’s Killer Fixin’s **Author Special**!! Today, in lieu of one of my own recipes, I’m going to introduce you to a new author who will share one of her favorite recipes. Not only will you and I occasionally learn how to make something new and delicious, but we’ll get a chance to check out some wonderful authors. Introducing author, RUTH MORGAN, and her favorite recipes for MUFFINS/PATTY CAKES!

THE WHITWORTH MYSTERIES
Short Crime Fiction
BY RUTH MORGAN

Blurb

The Whitworth Mysteries: a collection of short crime fiction stories set in an around a rural city located in outback New South Wales.

‘So, Superintendent, you’re the man who watched my daughter die?’

THE WHITWORTH MYSTERIES
Short Crime Fiction
BY RUTH MORGAN

Excerpt

“Ready, Set, Go”

Rattle, rattle from the wheels as the train crossed the high plateau before slowly beginning the long descent.

The procession of black and red wound through narrow cuttings, carefully negotiating tight bends, picking up speed as the descent became steeper. It began to race across slender bridges. Faster and faster until the wheels lost grip and the train left the tracks. With an ear-splitting scream of metal hitting rock, it crashed into the side of a mountain. Carriages tumbled over and over before splashing into the river below.

Passengers lay where they’d been tossed, motionless beside the torn up tracks.

The guard, his bright blue uniform torn, lay unmoving. In one clenched hand, a gold button.

The engine lay on its back with its wheels spinning in the air, wreathed in smoke and steam surrounded by broken passengers.

***

A knock on the door and the room was filled with light.

Chloe Tyler watched her mother studying the room, analysing the chaos.

The toy box was on its side, disembowelled. Its contents were scattered over the polished wooden floorboards, in the middle lay the red engine.

“Chloe, your appointment is in an hour and you’re not ready! You’re nearly thirteen, you ought to be more responsible.” Disappointment dripped from every syllable. Her mother was never happy with anything. She imagined her lying broken on the train tracks that sour expression neutralised.

Chloe put the toys back in the box, smirking at the destruction.

Her grandmother had loudly disapproved of such a boyish toy for a girl. Girls had frilly dresses and dolls, play kitchens and teddy bears dressed in pink. They were not given train sets. Chloe sat on the floor, holding the red engine between long slender fingers, tracing the name Whitworth Express on the tender.

It was a birthday present from her father the year she turned twelve. An expensive, imported set made for the European market where children understood snow and mountains. Chloe could only imagine what snow felt like. In winter there were heavy white frosts that made her nose and fingers stiff and cold. She’d never seen a mountain. The country surrounding Whitworth was flat, covered with tatty bushes and sparse trees. There were no pretty hanging baskets filled with red flowers, or girls and boys in strange costumes. Her imagination took her into the pictures covering the box. It was an alien environment without gum trees. Her father’s car had hit a gum tree.

She heard her mother bustling in the hallway and methodically Chloe returned the carriages to the line. The red engine at the front was ready for its next journey.

After Laura delivered her daughter to the office overlooking the river, she would leave. The psychiatrist would politely offer a glass of water, or a soft drink, and with equal politeness Chloe would refuse. Then they’d get down the serious business of him prying and her blocking.

Ninety minutes later, she’d hear the front door squeak, the chair in the waiting room rattle and she would stand.

“Goodbye Doctor.”

“Same time next week?” he would enquire of Laura as she paid the bill.

Outside mother and daughter bought ice cream from the corner shop and ate it sitting by the river. Chloe always had vanilla. A ritual even in the middle of winter. Chloe did much better with consistency according to the psychiatrist’s reports. He was wrong about that, as he was wrong about so much else. She loved the challenge of something new and exciting. As she finished the last of the cone and wiped her mouth, she debated ordering strawberry next week and watching her mother’s reaction.

About Author Ruth Morgan…

Links to Ruth’s website, blog, books, #ad, etc.:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3AYYoOO

https://www.clarendonhousebooks.com/ruth-morgan

Website: https://ruthmorgan.com.au/

I hope you enjoy the recipes Ruth is sharing today on Karen’s Killer Fixin’s. Happy Eating!

Karen

P.S. We’re at 639 recipes and counting with this posting. Hope you find some recipes you like. If this is your first visit, please check out past blogs for more Killer Fixin’s. In the right-hand column menu,  you can even look up past recipes by type. i.e. Desserts, Breads, Beef, Chicken, Soups, Author Specials, etc.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: If an author’s favorite recipe isn’t their own creation and came from an online site, you will now find the entire recipe through the link to that site as a personal recommendation. Thank you.

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