Hotdish to Die For (1999)

Pat Dennis's collection of culinary mystery stories, each with a hotdish recipe, was published by Penury Press in Minneapolis. In "The Maltese Tater Tot" the private investigator Sarah Black of the Strunk and Black Detective Agency, whose partner Strunk is a garage-sale photograph, is hired by Chuck Mittler, founder of the Tater's restaurant chain, who believes his young wife is stealing her own jewellery. (Open Library)

Watches

Gucci (unidentified model): Chuck Mittler arrives at Sarah Black's warehouse-district office tight with anxiety and, after a drag on his cigar, lays out the case: his wife's emerald earrings were stolen from the house last month, a diamond tennis bracelet went missing two weeks ago, and yesterday she announced that her 18K Gucci watch was gone. He will not call the police, because he thinks the thief is his wife Christine, twenty years younger, whom he married eleven months ago. The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: "My wife's emerald earrings were stolen last month from our house. Two weeks ago a diamond tennis bracelet was missing. And yesterday she announced that her 18K Gucci watch was gone." (Pat Dennis, Hotdish to Die For, scan cataloged as Penury Press, 2000, p. 78, in "The Maltese Tater Tot", which begins on p. 77; Christine is named on p. 79; the copyright page carries a 1999 Library of Congress number and Open Library dates the book 1999; Internet Archive scan OCR)