Care for a Biscuit? by Marty Wingate

 Jenn McKinlay: Anyone who knows me knows my answer to the title question. YES, PLEASE! I love a good British biscuit, but here is the fabulous Marty Wingate to tell us more as we celebrate the release of her latest First Edition Library Mystery -- The Librarian Always Rings Twice.

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Marty Wingate: The topic is biscuits. Not American biscuits—those savory scone-like delights—but British biscuits, which are cookies in the States. My books are set in Britain, and so biscuits are ubiquitous, and without realizing I was doing so, I’ve developed a sort of code of biscuits in my mysteries. This made perfect sense to me especially as I learned that a recent poll found that Brits eat an average of 11 biscuits a week. That was before the pandemic. During the past two years, biscuits sales have soared—as well they should. 

 

My biscuit code does not tell the reader who the murderer is by the way he or she dunks his or her digestive. Instead, it is a way of telegraphing just how Hayley Burke—protagonist in my First Edition Library series, including the most recent: The Librarian Always Rings Twice—interacts with those around her. It’s by the choosing, the giving or withholding, and the willingness to partake with others that we see how Hayley deals with the events and people around her.

 

I’m sure we can all agree that biscuits in general are a necessity of life, but which biscuit? In another British poll, this one taken in 2020, the top twenty biscuits were revealed, and coming in at number 1 (no surprise here) is the chocolate digestive with the plain (non-chocolate) digestive at number 11. A biscuit named “digestive” can sound odd to an American. It did to me when I first encountered it eons ago while visiting family friends who lived near Epping Forest. “What is this yummy cheesecake crust made from?” I asked. It was similar to the graham cracker, but much better. Digestives, I was told. I filed the word away and carried out my own research at a later date.

 

Coming in at number 13 in the survey is the rich tea biscuit. Rich tea and Marie biscuits are all one to me—they both have about as much taste as a piece of thin cardboard. I know there will be howls of complaints at my assessment, but there you are. I have passed on my prejudice to Hayley.

 

When faced with the most unpleasant of circumstances, she chooses to take a stand with biscuits. In The Librarian Always Rings Twice, Charles Henry Dill, nephew of the late Lady Georgiana Fowling whose library Hayley curates, is forced upon her as an assistant, and she manages him and her frustration with biscuits. Charles Henry is a lout of the first order, and so when she offers tea—there’s always tea—she accompanies it with a plate of Maries. Charles Henry asks for custard creams, but is told there are none. Hayley then retreats to her office with her own tea and the coveted custard creams. Later, with another character, she accepts the offered jammie dodgers. This biscuit, a children’s favorite, has a shortbread-like base with a spot of red jam. What can we detect from Hayley’s behavior? I’ll let the reader decide.

 

Amid the stalwarts of the top twenty—hobnobs, ginger nuts, bourbons, and custard creams (coming in a number 6), there are a few dodgy entries: Jaffa cakes (cake-ish with a blob of orange not-quite-marmalade in the middle and half-covered with chocolate) are at number 4. Even after a 1991 VAT (tax) tribunal established a Jaffa cake as cake, not biscuit—this is how serious the subject is—it’s still thrown into the biscuit ring. Also, many people voted for the “Maryland cookie,” which apparently is Burton’s (a British baker) version of … American cookies. What? Also, why are Oreos even allowed on this list, which should be limited to the best (aka British) biscuits?

 

I was happy to see malted milk biscuits make the list at number 17. They are quite plain, but one of my favorites, and, unlike Maries, have actual flavor. But the last shout-out must be for shortbread at number 2. Shortbread in any shape is delicious and should always be on hand. Hayley doesn’t go in for the fancier fan-shaped wedges, but sticks with the shortbread fingers—sturdy and buttery with a good snap. You’ll always find a packet of shortbread fingers in the kitchen at the First Edition Library. And in Hayley’s desk. And probably in her flat, too.  

 

Brits Top Twenty Biscuits

 

1. Chocolate digestive

2. Shortbread

3. Chocolate finger

4. Jaffa Cake

5. Chocolate hobnob

6. Custard cream

7. Jammie dodger

8. Maryland cookie

9. Bourbon

10. Crunch cream

11. Plain digestive

12. Viennese whirl

13. Rich tea

14. Ginger nut

15. Hobnob

16. Oreo

17. Malted Milk

18. Nice 

19. Figroll

20. Garibaldi

 

So, what about you, Reds and Readers, what are your favorite British biscuits? 

When a mysterious stranger turns up making claims that threaten Lady Fowling’s legacy, Hayley Burke must dig deep into her late-benefactor’s history to uncover the truth and catch a conniving killer in this new mystery from USA Today bestselling author Marty Wingate.

It has been nearly a year since I took up my position as curator of Lady Georgiana Fowling’s collection of Golden Age of Mystery writers’ first editions at her library in Middlebank House. I have learned that I need to take the good with the bad. The good: I have finally convinced Mrs. Woolgar to open up the collection to the public one day a week so that they too can share in Lady Fowling’s passion. The bad: although he would not be my first, or even tenth, choice, at the insistence of the board Charles Henry Dill, Lady Fowling’s unscrupulous nephew, is now my personal assistant.

On one of our first days open to the public, Mr. John Aubrey shows up at Middlebank House and insists that Lady Georgiana Fowling is his grandmother. Mrs. Woolgar is scandalized by his claims, and Charles Henry, who feels he has been cheated out of his rightful inheritance as Lady Fowling’s heir, is furious. I do not know that I believe Mr. Aubrey, yet he has knowledge of Lady Fowling’s life and writings that few possess. To further complicate matters, an associate of Mr. Aubrey’s intends to help us uncover the truth of John’s story. But before he can do that, he is murdered and the police have reason to suspect Charles Henry.

As much as I would like to lock up Charles Henry and throw away the key, I cannot believe he is a killer. And I also know there is something dead wrong about Mr. Aubrey’s tales regarding his “grandmother” Lady Fowling. I will need to make sense of her past in order to suss out the true villain of this story.