This Book Is Making Me Hungry — Murder at The Flamingo

I love when books engage more than one or two senses, and it’s really great when one makes me hungry! Rachel McMillan’s latest historical mystery, Murder at The Flamingo, is set in Boston of the 1930s, and the historic North End plays a prominent part. This neighborhood was a melting pot, and Italian immigrants were prominent citizens. Main character Reggie Van Buren wholeheartedly joins the community and finds herself savoring the wonderful cannolis from the local bakery. I am a cannoli novice (they are not on the menu at my local bakery), and I didn’t realize they came in such a wide variety. Reggie especially loves lemon cannoli. So mouth watering, I searched the internet for an easy (that’s my baking motto) lemon cannoli recipe. I found Lemon Meringue Pie Cannoli from tbsp.com. Make sure to check out both the recipe and the book!

Lemon Meringue Pie Cannoli

Ingredients:

1 box of Pillsbury™ Refrigerated Pie Crust, thawed
1 egg
1 teaspoon water
3/4 cup lemon curd
1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed
Optional, 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray 8 cannoli forms with non-stick baking spray.

Unroll pie dough and cut four 4 1/2 inch circles from each crust. Make an egg wash by whisking the egg and water together. Wrap one pie dough circle around each cannoli form sealing the edges with egg wash. Set on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and freeze for 10 minutes.

Remove and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden brown. Allow to cool for 10 minutes then carefully remove them from the cannoli forms. Let them cool completely.

Stir together lemon curd and marshmallow fluff. Stir in the whipped topping. Pour into a disposable pastry or zip top bag.

Just before serving, snip the tip off the pastry bag and pipe the pie filling into the pie crust cannoli shells.

If desired, sprinkle lemon zest onto pie filling at ends of cannoli.

“Maybe it was time to land straight in the middle of the adventure…”

Hamish DeLuca has spent most of his life trying to hide the anxiety that appears at the most inopportune times — including during his first real court case as a new lawyer. Determined to rise above his father’s expectations, Hamish runs away to Boston where his cousin, Luca Valari, is opening a fashionable nightclub in Scollay Square.  When he meets his cousin’s “right hand man,” Reggie, Hamish wonders if his dreams for a more normal life might be at hand. 

Regina “Reggie” Van Buren, heir to a New Haven fortune, has fled fine china, small talk, and the man her parents expect her to marry. Determined to make a life as the self-sufficient city girl she’s seen in her favorite Jean Arthur and Katharine Hepburn pictures, Reggie runs away to Boston, where she finds an easy secretarial job with the suave Luca Valari. But as she and Hamish work together in Luca’s glittering world, they discover a darker side to the smashing Flamingo nightclub.

When a corpse is discovered at the Flamingo, Reggie and Hamish quickly learn there is a vast chasm between the haves and the have-nots in 1937 Boston — and that there’s an underworld that feeds on them both. As Hamish is forced to choose between his conscience and loyalty to his beloved cousin, the unlikely sleuthing duo work to expose a murder before the darkness destroys everything they’ve worked to build. 

Rachel McMillan is a keen history enthusiast and a lifelong bibliophile. When not writing or reading, she can most often be found drinking tea and watching British miniseries. Rachel lives in bustling Toronto, where she works in educational publishing and pursues her passion for art, literature, music, and theater.