New Release and Fudge Cake

A new release–hot off the presses, and it sounds fantastic–PLUS a fudge cake recipe from the author. Author Kris Bock introduces the Reluctant Psychic Series with Stone Cold Murder! And did I mention the fudge cake?

Kris Bock on the Reluctant Psychic Mysteries and a therapeutic hot fudge cake recipe

The Reluctant Psychic Mystery series stars Petra Cloch, a young woman who can touch an object and sense the emotions people have left behind. I thought this would be a terrible way to live. If you tell people, some will think you were lying or delusional. Those who believe you might be afraid to have you near their stuff, or they might want you to use your power for their own benefit. If you didn’t tell people, it would be hard to have friends and harder to date. You might learn things you didn’t want to know and feel like you were betraying your friends or lover. I developed Petra’s character with the idea that having a psychic power in a world that doesn’t typically believe in psychic powers would be difficult.

In book 1, A Stone Cold Murder, Petra starts a new job at a quirky private museum in New Mexico. She’s planning to keep to herself, but it’s harder to be anonymous in a small town. Plus, when she picks up a rock in her new office, she feels flashes of rage, fear and death. Everyone says her predecessor died in a car crash, but what if he was murdered? If he died because of something he did or something that happened on the job, she could be next. Her annoyingly friendly colleagues invite her to join a book club, which seems like a good way to learn more about her predecessor and the people around him.

At the book club meeting, Petra gets a call from her next door neighbor/landlord saying that a man is in her house. She rushes home, meeting the police there, but the intruders are gone. The book club follows her, turning this traumatic incident into a little party:

I had two glasses of wine over several hours, which shouldn’t cause a hangover, but I also stayed up too late and ate way too much of the hot fudge cake Liberty whipped up in my kitchen. The desert had a very moist cake layer with chocolate pudding on top, served warm with whipped cream, so I could see why she’d made it fresh and why she called it therapy cake.

In case you need some chocolate therapy, here’s the recipe.

Hot Fudge Cake

For this “dump cake,” you put dry ingredients in the pan and you pour hot water over them. That creates a cake layer with a rich pudding layer on top. Serves about 8.

1 cup all-purpose flour

¾ cup white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons baking cocoa powder, divided

½ cup milk

one teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 ¾ cups water

serve with ice cream or whipped cream, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan or casserole dish.
Blend flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and 2 tablespoons of the cocoa powder in a large bowl.
Stir in the milk, vanilla, and oil or melted butter. Blend everything until smooth.
Spread the mixture evenly into the baking pan.
Blend the brown sugar and the remaining 4 tablespoons cocoa powder. Sprinkle this mixture on top of the batter in the pan.
Heat the water until it starts to boil. Gently pour the hot water over everything. Do not mix it in.
Bake the cake for 30 minutes. Check that the center of the cake layer is almost set. (The top layer should be like pudding, not too liquid but not dry.) If the center isn’t set, bake another 5 minutes.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, if you like.

The Reluctant Psychic Mystery series – A Stone Cold Murder by Kris Bock

She hates her gift – but it just might save her…

Geologist Petra Cloch can touch an object and sense the emotions of the people who’ve held it. It’s a miserable way to live. She studied rocks because they rarely ‘talk’ to her and she’s dodged friendships so she won’t need to explain her gift or feel like a voyeur. But when she takes a job as the rock and mineral curator at an unusual western history museum and picks up a jagged crystal in her new office, flashes of rage, fear and death hit hard.

Everyone says her predecessor died in a car crash, but what if he was murdered? Under normal circumstances, Petra would never become involved, but what if the previous curator died because of something he did on the job? She could be next. Petra knows she’ll need evidence, not her psychic sense she hides. Can she trust her chatty colleagues who invite her to lunch and to join a book club? And what about the far too watchful Sheriff who keeps showing up unexpectedly…

Readers say:

“A good old-fashioned murder mystery with a twist. The supernatural elements make this book interesting. It was suspenseful and kept you guessing until the end… Good read.”

“I really enjoyed the intro to all the people in this small community. So many interesting characters.”

Learn more or order The Reluctant Psychic Mystery series, available in ebook and print at all major retailers.

Kris Bock writes mystery, suspense, and romance, often with Southwestern landscapes. In the Accidental Detective humorous mystery series, a witty journalist solves mysteries in Arizona and tackles the challenges of turning fifty. The Furrever Friends Sweet Romance series features the employees and customers at a cat café. Watch as they fall in love with each other and shelter cats. In the Accidental Billionaire Cowboys series, a Texas ranching family wins a fortune in the lottery and find out winning the lottery causes as many problems as it solves. Kris’s romantic suspense novels include stories of treasure hunting, archaeology, and intrigue.

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Kris also writes a series with her brother, scriptwriter Douglas J Eboch, who wrote the original screenplay for the movie Sweet Home Alabama. The Felony Melanie series follows the crazy antics of Melanie, Jake, and their friends a decade before the events of the movie. Sign up for the romantic comedy newsletter to get a short story preview, or find the books at Amazon US or All E-book retailers.