Oh the Joys of Jury Duty!

January 31st, 2014 counts probably the 10th time I've been picked for Jury Duty, but only the second time I've had to actually go to the courthouse for it.  Before moving to the Chicago area, I was always in school or in the process of moving when I had received summons.  No such luck in Chicago.  I was picked for service a few years ago and actually selected for jury duty.  At the time I hadn't lived in Chicago long and going downtown in the beginning of January is always a pain in the ass.  With the #chiberia polar vortex going on this year I was slightly concerned that the weather was going to be incredibly awful.  I just barely lucked out.  Today there is no snow and its actually about 20 degrees outside.  So not horrendous.

If you ever have to hit the Daley Center in the Chicago area, its not too far from Ogilvie transportation center.  This is great for me because I live about 25 miles northwest of the city.  Traffic and parking during the week are not a special treat in the city.  Especially when you're in the heart of the city.  :(

Last time I had jury duty I got picked to serve on a jury that lasted for about 3 whole days.  For one of the stupidest, boring cases I'd ever heard.  We're talking really, really boring.  In the 80's, I served on the jury in 2010 I believe (?), this woman rented a space from Public Storage.  There was a mix-up with her paperwork and even though she was paying her monthly bill, Public Storage auctioned off her space for defaulting.  This case had been tried and retried and was on its very last appeal.  Public Storage had already been decided to be at fault.  All we had to determine was the amount of damages the woman would get.

This took 3 days of testimony as to what was in her storage space and how expensive it was.  After much deliberation we awarded her $100,000.  The judge spoke with us about the case after it was over.  He told us the reason this was the last appeal was due to it being previously judged by a trio panel of judges.  They awarded her $750 million dollars in damages!!  That's completely insane!  He also told us that just before this appeal, Public Storage offered her $250,000 to settle and she refused.

This just goes to show you never know what will happen when you sue someone.  You could get a huge settlement, you could barely win enough to cover your almost 20 years worth of lawyer fees or you could lose.  That's the one thing I learned from jury duty.  Going to court is pretty much a crap shoot, especially when you have a jury deciding your fate.

For that reason alone I'm not sure that juries are the best way to determine a case.  I mean a judge can tell you the law, but that doesn't really mean all the jurors will understand or interpret it the same way.  Or god forbid you could get someone like me on your jury who pretty much lives in a food blogging cave in her kitchen.  I am not up on current events, never have been and never will be.

After waiting all day, we were finally dismissed an hour early!  But this is the kicker, not a single jury pool!  You'd think the courts would know if they'd possibly need a jury that day or not.  If I hadn't gotten to eat lunch at Macy's Walnut Room my entire day would have been a bust.

So what are your thoughts on Jury Duty?

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Disney On Ice Let's Celebrate at AllState Arena Jan 22nd

Are you a big fan of all things Disney?  We kinda are at my house so I was excited to see an offer to attend Disney On Ice's Let's Celebrate in exchange for some promotion.  Even though I'm not a little girl anymore, I still love Disney movies.  There just isn't anything like them even today.

If you've got a Disney fan at your house, here are all the details about Disney on Ice being in the Chicago area the next two weeks!

Allstate Arena in Rosemont Jan 22 - Jan 26 & United Center in Chicago Jan 29 - Feb 9 

It's one colossal party on ice, with all your favorite Disney friends! Join Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse as they celebrate a Very Merry Unbirthday Party with Alice and the Mad Hatter; Mardi Gras with Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen; a Royal Valentine's Day Ball with the Disney Princesses; a Hawaiian luau with Lilo & Stitch; a winter wonderland with Woody, Jessie and Buzz Lightyear; a Halloween haunt with the Disney Villains and more in a magical medley of holidays, celebrations and festivals from around the globe.  Come join the party when this spectacular ice show visits your hometown!

Parking is FREE in all official arena parking lots. Visit official arena websites for more information.

Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL. Jan 22 - Jan 26, 2014
United Center in Chicago, IL. Jan 29 - Feb 9, 2014

Save 40% on all weekday shows and Save 20% on all weekend shows using code MOM. Get Your Tickets Now- http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/2q2yrx

Weekday is defined as any show Monday through Thursday or Friday matinee, not including holidays. Discount does not apply to Front Row or VIP seats. No double discounts. Service charges, handling, and facility fees may apply.

*I was provided tickets in exchange for a sponsored post.  All opinions are my own.*

Mariano's Snacks for 2 at the Brookfield Zoo

If you live in the Chicago area or have visited, chances are you've been to the Brookfield Zoo.  Chicago is kinda unique in that it has not one, but two zoos.  Even though the Lincoln Park Zoo always has free admission, I've always preferred going to Brookfield especially in the summer.  The variety of animals is different and there tends to be more shade beneath the trees so even a hot day can be spent walking the paths.  Not only is going to Brookfield Zoo always a blast, stopping to pick up snacks at #MyMarianos always makes for a better day.

Wednesday dawned as the perfect day to go to Brookfield Zoo, all we needed to do was stop at Mariano's on the way to pick up some healthy snacks.  Mariano's is the perfect choice as they've got all these awesome food to go options right at the front of the store.  The problem we faced was having to pick which foods we wanted.  The selection is always staggering and narrowing it down took quite some time as we decided which would be easily eaten outside. They've got everything from sushi to fresh cut fruit and you can even save more when you use your Mariano's rewards card.  I call that a win-win!  Check out the rest of our shopping trip on our Google+ album.

The reason why I love going to the Brookfield Zoo over Lincoln Park is the memories I have of being there with my grandparents.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but this is the third time I've lived in the Chicago area!  I was born here, but I've lived all over the country.  When I was little we lived here in Chicago and I split my time during the week between both sets of grandparents.  For almost four years I was an only grandchild and just an eensy, weensy bit spoiled. (By that she means completely and utterly spoiled in every possible way.)

Anyway, whenever my grandmother would take me to the zoo we'd use the Mold-a-Matic and get wax animals.  While they aren't made of wax anymore, now the machine uses plastic, kids still love them.  Even though, I don't have any children I still am tempted to get one every time I go to the zoo. Which means half our trip was spent over the selection of which figures to get.  The merits of wax animals discussed could create a very serious and tedious lecture upon whether coloring outweighs details.  Or rather if the Triceratops while white is nearly as majestic as the Dolphin with teeth in his smile.

I hate having to get food while at the Zoo.  The choices aren't all that great or healthy and I don't feel so great after eating a ton of junk food.  Stopping at Mariano's on the way enabled us to have some of our favorite foods to enjoy at the zoo.

We decided to eat lunch with the giraffes.  Late last fall there was a new baby giraffe and it was nice to get to sit and watch him for a while.  Susie decided to have some sushi.  To our surprise a little girl of about three also decided that sushi would be a delightful snack.  For the choices and variety at the zoo are not nearly as good as freshly prepared sushi.

While I went with the more classic chicken salad on a pretzel bun.  Absolutely perfect zoo fare!  Made much easier to eat with a fork which we nearly forgot to bring.   Good thing we remembered or our fruit would also have been quite an interesting snack.  We would have looked as determined as the baby giraffe we ate our food near.  He spent quite a long time attempting to reach the offering of food just out of his reach.  I'm not entirely sure our tongues could have functioned in the same fashion.  As he triumphantly snuck a few pieces here and there.  

We also saw Okapis which are related to giraffes.  The very first Okapi born in captivity was at the Brookfield Zoo back in the '50s.  They're pretty neat to look at.  I absolutely love the markings on their hindquarters.  So very distinctive.

After walking through the zoo, we decided it was time for our final snack.  Chocolate covered cannolis from Mariano's bakery.  While they tasted good, cannolis aren't meant to be carried around in a bag at the zoo all day.  :)  They were delicious despite their newly found character travelling through the continents filled with exotic creatures.    

Be sure to connect with Mariano's on Facebook and Twitter.

Shredded Beef Mole Pasilla with Guacamole for Cinco De Mayo

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Mariano’s #cbias #SocialFabric All opinions are my own.

Once again it is time to share another one of my favorite foods with you.  I absolutely love mole sauces.  They are fantastic on just about every kind of meat.  Mole is the perfect combination of spicy and chocolate on your dinner plate.  Mole (pronounced mol-lay) is a Mexican sauce typically poured over chicken breasts.  Mole is incredibly addictive.  Since Cinco De Mayo is right around the corner I thought it was the perfect time to head to #MyMarianos for all the fresh and exotic ingredients needed to make this dish.

I am so lucky to have a Mariano's practically in my backyard.  They almost always have every exotic or odd ingredient I'm searching for.  From this exotic wall of spices to purple potatoes or even being able to pick up small amounts of nuts and grains, they literally have everything.  The staff is also so incredibly helpful.  They go out of their way to help you find something.  They'll also make suggestions if you can't find what you're looking for.  With me this happens more often than not.  I just chalk it up to being creative.

There are a few things that come to mind when we think of Mexican foods.  Mostly it's a little bit of heat and rich spices with a topping of fresh ingredients.  We combined one of our favorite foods.  Well, at least Susie's favorite guacamole with a new recipe for tacos.  Some slowly cooked beef with a mole pasilla sauce and fresh guacamole to finish it off.  While guacamole can and often is enjoyed by itself it really tied the dish together.  The raw vegetables added a contrasting sweetness and tartness.  The mole sauce is smokey and savory with a hint of chocolate.  So, the guacamole added some fresh flavor and a little texture.   Using corn tortillas instead of flour not only saves some unnecessary calories but provides a little extra flavor and adds extra protein.  The bonus of course is that our corn tortillas were slightly larger and cooked faster meaning more room for the delicious taco fillings.

Where did we go to pick up these ingredients?  Mariano's!  Their produce section allowed us a one stop shopping trip.  They even had already ripe avocados which meant that we could make our guacamole the same day!  Instead of waiting for them to ripen on our counter as we sadly pined over the lost time between delicious tacos.  Plus with our rewards card we got a deal on some of our ingredients!  Always good to know when you scan your card you are saving money on the best produce in town!  A quick and easy way to save at our favorite store.  You can check out the rest of our shopping trip on Google+.

My recipe is a little different from other moles in that it uses dried pasilla chilies, lots of chocolate and some sugar to bring out the flavor.  This recipe is best made a day ahead.  Do not be intimidated by the huge ingredient list.  While this recipe does take a while to make, it truly is worth it.  Mole pasilla tastes even better on the second day.  Instead of making a typical meal of chicken breast smothered in mole, I went with something much tastier.  Yummy corn tortillas filled with fresh guacamole and slow cooked shredded beef drizzled with mole pasilla.  Chocolate for dinner is always a win.

Mole Pasilla

5 dried pasilla chilies, stems and seeds removed
1/2 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon anise seeds
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon majorjam
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon sliced almonds
2 tablespoons raw peanuts
1 tablespoon raw pumpkin seeds
2 tomatoes, halved, seeded and roasted
2 tomatillos, halved and roasted
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
salt and pepper, to taste
3-4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
1/4 cup lard
1 corn tortilla, sliced into 8
3 slices stale baguette
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 pounds Black Angus Chuck Roast

Trim large pieces of fat from roast.  Grease crock pot and add trimmed roast.  Add 1/2 cup water and cook on high 4-6 hours until fork tender.  Remove from crock pot and cool.

Remove broiler pan from oven, grease and turn on broiler to high.  Slice tomatoes in half and remove the seeds.  Remove outer papery wrapper from tomatillos and slice in half.  Place cut side down on broiling pan.  Roast veggies on high for 8 minutes, remove from oven and flip.  Roast for 5 more minutes.  Veggie skins should be charred and peel easily away from the rest of the veggie.  Remove skins and place rest of veggies in a bowl to cool.

Stem and seed dried chilies.  To seed chilies, use a pair of kitchen shears to cut down one side to easily remove seeds.  In a dutch oven, set over medium heat add 1/4 cup lard.  When lard is hot and melted add the chilies and saute 2-3 minutes.  Remove from dutch oven with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool.

In the same oil, add the onion and garlic, saute 3-4 minutes or until they start to soften.  Stir in almonds, peanuts, raisins and pumpkin seeds.  Cook stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes

Stir in spices, let cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Make room in the middle and add bread, tortilla and roasted veggies.  Let cook for a few minutes.  Add chilies, 1 cup water and 2 cups chicken broth, bring to a simmer.  Let simmer 12-15 minutes and then allow everything to sit for 30 minutes.

Before pureeing, melt chocolate in saucepan with 1 tablespoon unsalted butter.  Add melted chocolate and sugar to dutch oven.  Puree everything in dutch oven in batches until smooth.  Serve immediately or store in refrigerator until ready to use.  When reheating, add chicken broth to mole pasilla to liquefy sauce.

Our guacamole recipe is adapted from a restaurant in the area.  They made their guacamole fresh to order and right at the table!  Of course, as you can see from our photograph the amounts aren't exactly precise.  Especially since we added more of some ingredients to suit our own tastes.  Even though according to some people we still didn't add enough cilantro.  The hard part is figuring out just how much jalapeno you need.  You never know exactly how much of a kick you are going to get until you try it!  So, we definitely had to add a little bit more.  Plus some extra tomato because what we had prepared got lost in the mix.

Guacamole

2 ripe avocados

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 medium tomato, diced

1/2 jalapeno, diced

3-4 sprigs of cilantro, chopped

1-2 teaspoon salt

1 lime

1/4 small onion, diced

First place the garlic and salt in your mortar.  Grind into a paste adding some lime juice about a tsp full. Continue to grind until you have a smooth paste.

Then begin adding your avocado.  Smashing with the pestle so there are no large chunks left.  Transfer avocado mixture into larger bowl.  Add in the rest of your ingredients.  Mix together and taste.  Adjust to your own taste preferences!  Eat when you're satisfied with the mixture!

To serve, heat mole pasilla with some chicken broth on the stove.  Heat shredded beef in the microwave.  Heat corn tortillas in a frying pan on the stove.  Layer on corn tortillas like in photo, fold over tortilla and serve.

You can find Mariano's on twitter, facebook and google+.

Herbert the Lamb Makes Mariano's Easter Dinner Fabulous

There is one place we go when we want to finish all of our shopping in one trip, Mariano's.  By far it is the best grocery store for when we want to get a little bit of everything, so it was the perfect place to get our Easter dinner supplies.  We celebrated early this year.  Luckily, #MyMarianos had everything that we needed for Easter already in their store.  Check out the rest of our shopping trip on Google+.

The first thing that pops into our minds when we think Easter dinner is ham.  Basically, Easter dinner is an excuse for us to satisfy our ham cravings.  We really do like ham and it allows us to have ham for an entire week.  Ham and eggs, ham snacks and of course, ham dinner.  Mariano's has a deal with their reward cards so that you can get a deal on your ham.

Sadly, ham by itself, even a delicious spiral ham is not an entire meal.  So, we stopped by the produce department and found some delightful fingerling potatoes.  We especially enjoyed the purple ones.  They added substance and color to our menu.

We also picked up a salad mix to cover our vegetable portion.  Salad is an easy way for us to include vegetables without the extra work of preparing them ourselves.

As we wandered through the store, we passed by the bakery.  Into our cart went a loaf of Challah bread which is another holiday food in our family.  Basically, Challah is one of our favorite holiday foods for any and every holiday.  Another excuse to pick out something that is delicious and fresh.

Of course, we needed the loaf of bread to go with our lamb butter.  We've always seen them around Easter but never bought one before.  This time we splurged on the lamb.  Quickly, it was named Herbert.  Sadly, Herbert was less fulfilling than we expected.  He came out of the container a bit lopsided.  Luckily, we put him out his misery on top of our fresh bread.

While we were in the bakery section we decided to pick out a dessert.  Something that we can only find at Mariano's.  The cookies and pies and cakes caught our attention.  Finally, we decided upon a colossal cupcake.  A bright blue which made our meal complete.

After we had picked out our dinner menu, we needed a snack.  We swung by the foods to go section, which happily has a sushi counter.  Finding our favorite spicy tuna roll, we were ready to check out and head home to start cooking.

Rosemary Garlic Pan Fried Sunset Fingerling Potatoes

1 1/4 pounds Sunset Fingerling Potatoes, washed and cut in half
water
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
up to 1/3 cup c olive oil
1-2 tablespoons dried rosemary

Wash and slice potatoes in half.  Place in a microwave container and just cover with water.  Microwave for 8-11 minutes or until just fork tender.  This makes the pan frying process go quicker.  Drain and dry potatoes on a towel.  Once dry, toss potatoes with olive oil.  Add to large frying pan on medium heat along with garlic and rosemary.  Cook until potatoes begin to brown.  Serve warm.

You can connect with Mariano's on Twitter and Facebook.  They love to connect and talk to their shoppers.

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Mariano’s #cbias #SocialFabric All opinions are my own.

Mariano's Recipes make Impressive Meals Easy

Have I mentioned how lucky I am to have a Mariano's practically in my backyard?  Alright, maybe it's more of a skip, a hop and a jump into the car, but it's still close.  Since I'm in Arlington Heights, I live by the first Mariano's in the area.  Mine has been open over two years now and has been crazy busy since opening.  The Arlington Police still direct traffic to and from the parking lot at times.  That's how busy this store is.  I love being so close because I can always pop over to find something special for dinner.

I was on the lookout to make something new and different for Saturday night.  I decided to check Mariano's huge recipe database on their website for a dish to make.  Instead of one dish, I found an entire meal to make.  I decided to tackle the Korean-Style Oven-Browned Short Ribs, the Spinach with Roasted Sesame Seeds and Hazelnut Chocolate Decadence for dessert.  If you're ever stumped on what to make for dinner, definitely check out this database.  I guarantee you'll find something.  Another awesome feature is the ability to save recipes you like to your recipe box.  This way you'll easily be able to find your favorites whenever you want.

The produce at Mariano's is always crazy fresh and so well stocked.  There always seem to be 3-4 employees working in the produce department.  They have a large variety of organic and non-organic produce along with things like fresh daikon radishes.  Today I needed some spinach to make the spinach with roasted sesame seeds.

Next it was off to the butcher counter to see if they had some short ribs.  They didn't have any at the counter, but there were some pre-packaged on the shelf.  I was slightly disappointed as I love getting things from the butcher counter, but it did make my trip quicker.  :)

While in the meat department, I saw this sign advertising the ham rewards program for the holidays.  When you shop between 1/27/13 - 3/24/13 for every $10 you spend you get a point, if you rack up 85 points you can then purchase a Roundy's Select Fire Glazed Ham or Organic frozen turkey for $.99 a pound.  If you do a lot of shopping at Mariano's, this is an awesome deal!

I didn't realize that hazelnuts were a seasonal item, so I had to make a substitution in my Hazelnut Chocolate Decadence recipe.  Mariano's carries a variety of dry goods in bins by their produce department.  I thought macadamia nuts would work great instead.  They do taste awesome.  If you decide to use them in your tart, definitely place a pan underneath it.  Macadamia nuts have a higher fat content and that will leak right out of your springform pan.  Live and learn.

Korean-Style Oven-Browned Short Ribs are pretty easy to make.  You take a dutch oven and add all the ingredients except for the sesame oil.  Add enough water to cover the ribs and bring the water to a boil.  Simmer, skimming off the fat for about two hours or until the meat is tender.  Then cook them in the oven for about 15 minutes.  Easy-peasy.

The spinach with roasted sesame seeds is just as easy.  After cleaning your spinach, place it all in a large saucepan.  Cook with a cover on for 3-4 minutes until wilted.  Drain and squeeze out the moisture.  Roughly chop and toss with sesame oil and sesame seeds.

This meal was a little richer than something we'd normally have for dinner.  But its nice to have something special from time to time.  Mariano's is a great place to find all your favorite fresh ingredients for your family. I know its one of my favorite places to pick up everything I need for a special meal.

Seriously, it's easy to go to Mariano's for everything on my list.  With their large and fresh produce section, I can easily pick out meals and ingredients to help my family, eat well, live well and shop well.  If anyone thinks grocery shopping is a chore, then they haven't stopped by a Mariano's.

Check out the rest of my shopping trip on Google+.  You can also connect with Mariano's on Twitter and Facebook.

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Mariano’s #cbias #SocialFabric All opinions are my own.

Chicago Breweries: Beer Bread Project 2013

We posted a couple of weeks ago about a special new project at Rosie Discovers.  This year we're touring breweries in the Chicago area.  Why are we touring them you ask?  Well over the holidays we got this great idea to make bread with craft beers.

Had I ever made beer bread before?  Well, no but I have a basic understanding of how to make a great loaf of bread.  With this knowledge, I've been experimenting and working the kinks out of my yeasted beer bread recipes.  My hope for each bread recipe is to bring out the flavors in the beer.  To make each loaf special.  I'll be sharing these recipes with you along the way, so make sure you come back to check them out.

Here are photos of a few of my practice loaves.  The first is a Spaten Doppelbock, which is a dark German beer.  This bread wasn't too bad, but not quite right.  The dopplebock was still sour despite the sugar I added.

The second was a Sam Adam's Coastal and the only quick bread I made.  I don't know if the Sam Adam's is just an icky beer, but my loaf turned out like a flour tasting hockey puck.  Definite yuck.  I used a King Arthur Flour recipe and it just wasn't good.

The last is a Summit Saga IPA.  This made a pretty good bread with a citrus taste to it.  It wasn't a particularly strong beer, so it tasted more like a bakery sandwich bread.

The first brewery we're featuring is Church Street Brewing Co. in Itasca, IL.  Let me tell you, they were incredibly kind and patient with us.  They walked us through pretty much the entire brewing process.  It's a bit more involved than you might think.  :)  We're going to have 4 (that's right FOUR) different breads made with their beers and spent grain.

Make sure to follow along as we hope to get to work with most of the breweries in the Chicago area.  Also feel free to leave the name of your favorite brewery in the comments below to make sure that we contact them.

Nielsen-Massey Field Trip Today!

This morning we're off on a field trip to Nielsen-Massey.  Do you know what Nielsen-Massey does?  They've been making amazing vanilla and other extracts for the past 100 years.  Right here in the Chicago area.  

We're seeing celebrity UK Chef Eric Lanlard, who's going to be doing a demo with the French Pastry School.  Then we're touring the factory and meeting a Nielsen.  I'm super excited!!

I hope I'll be able to take photos to share with y'all later!

Death's Crooked Shadow By Gordon N. McIntosh

Not your typical murder mystery.  This is a mystery that bears more complexity than most.  The plot is centered on uncovering the details of a found body which alters the course of Danny Delaney’s life.

Even in fiction, most characters don’t have to deal with their parent’s actions.  I was drawn in by the unconventional plot.  I found it relaxing to read a novel that isn’t completely filled with outrageous drama.  If I’m honest, most mysteries are filled with it.  Most suspects presented are filled with hatred and an unhealthy mental state, but not every crime committed is one deranged person wanting only to harm other people.  

This does not follow that path and we get a better narrative because of it.  The crime and investigation are logical.  The circumstances are completely believable which always results in a better story. 

McIntosh provides us with real world details that create an entirely plausible mystery.  His characters are truly human.  Our lead character doesn’t just go off to solve a murder leaving everything else in his life behind.  He is still a parent and our other characters are equally grounded.  It’s refreshing to be presented with characters that proceed as I or anyone else would. 

When you compact the story, Danny Delaney just wants to know what happened to his father.  His body has turned up in unusual circumstances.  He decides to solve the mystery so he can understand how his father died and the events that led to it.  In the end, the outcome will not leave the reader in a state of unease or unsatisfied.  Obviously, the mystery is bound to be solved as it's the main plot but this one left me feeling less jaded. 

Political corruption does exist in the world and Chicago is a prime example.  Around here, people say that the dead still come out to vote.  Only this was a good reminder that not every person involved in politics is corrupt or out to make money. 

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a more subtle and sophisticated mystery.

Author's Bio: Gordon N. McIntosh began writing mysteries and thrillers after a master's degree from the University of Chicago and a successful real estate career. After an early retirement he and his wife traveled and lived extensively in Mexico, South America, Australia and Europe. Now they split their time between their homes in Chicago and Key West, Florida. When he's not writing, he enjoys running, scuba diving, tennis, and world travel. This is his second mystery/thriller novel.

For more information visit: gordonmcintosh.com or deathscrookedshadow.com

All opinions and thoughts are my own.  I received this copy from the author from review.  Other than that I was not compensated for this review.