Welcome! Since I write
culinary mysteries, “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” deals with food topics
and with mysteries. This month I am sharing ways to kill people—in your
mysteries, of course—and some tips on getting away with it! To avoid the
pronoun problem, I’ll use heesh (he or she), shis (his or hers), and shim (him
or her) throughout the entries. Tune in for murder and mayhem.
Since I did knife yesterday, with the jambiya, I moved onto
other options.
You could have your killer use a kebbie. A kebbie is a
shepherd’s crook. This would be another blunt force trauma death. I know that kebbies aren’t part of the décor of
city apartments, but that would be part of the fun, don’t you know. Imagine the
M.E. trying to figure out what the blunt object might have been. Imagine how
your killer would return the kebbie to
the farm and remove it from the search jurisdiction of the police. On the other
hand, your victim could be a collector of walking sticks and the like so that
the weapon is left in plain sight, though cleaned up.
Another blunt force object is a knitch, a bundle of wood tied together. I think that would be a bit
awkward, but in the heat of the moment, your killer might snatch up whatever is
handy to whack the victim. Nasty face after that blow! It’s hard to lift finger
prints from raw, rough wood.
But the real star today, and maybe the star of this month’s
killer methods is Kidney Beans. Raw or under-cooked kidney beans, that is. They contain
relatively high amounts of phytohaemagglutnin. Who knew?
Raw kidney beans are
toxic and might be difficult for the killer to get shis victim to ingest. But kidney beans cooked at a very low
temperature are five times more
toxic than the raw kidney beans.
Check the temperature on your slow cooker. Old ones are not as hot as the new
ones. Kidney beans have to be boiling
for at least ten minutes. Cooking at a temperature of 80C/176F can kill you. Think
how easy it would be for a wife to kill her husband by using an original slow cooker!
She can admit to cooking the raw kidney beans
she fed him, but she can claim ignorance of the toxicity of low-temp cooked kidney beans. No jury would convict her!
I kind of love this one!
On a bloodier note, killing with a Knout, a flog or scourge, is another one of those up close and
personal ones. Often the knout had knotted ends for each strand or a metal
piece might be attached to at least some of them. Some religious engaged in self-flagellation
as penance for supposed sins. I don’t know of any who died from the knout used,
but it might be worth exploring. Old monk, self-flagellator, is found dead. Who
would suspect murder?
But more likely, it seems to me this would be a killing for
ritual or hereticism. Or you might have a sociopath who uses a knout as his signature method.
In the past, however, flogging with a knout was not an uncommon punishment for slaves or others. We know
you can kill if you go on long enough and/or hit vital areas again and again to
wreak internal damage. This is a very painful way to die, and I would think
your killer would have to either a sociopath or a very strong stomach.
Whatever have I found for killing with L words? Stop by to find out tomorrow.
If
you take time to share this post on social media, I would be most
grateful.
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writer need ideas to kill? K is for Kidney Beans or Knout. Many killer tips
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from A to Z Challenge offers a wide range of topics. If you want to kill
someone (in books of course), check out killing by Kidney Beans or Knout on
“Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” at http://bit.ly/23zfdId
Check
out Sharon Arthur Moore’s culinary mystery, Mission Impastable
