Too Many Cooks — Marcia Talley

The Three Weird Sisters, tragically orphaned, turn to witchcraft to support themselves. One success leads to another until Lady Macbeth comes to call. Are the events that follow the consequence of divine providence, or -- double double, toil and trouble -- the result of Too Many Cooks?

"Too Many Cooks” was originally published in 2002 in MUCH ADO ABOUT MURDER, an anthology of 17 all-new, Shakespeare-inspired mystery stories compiled and edited by New York Times best-selling author Anne Perry. The story won both the Agatha Award and the Anthony Award for Best Short Story that year.

“I did a short story on Macbeth once, from Lady Macbeth's point of view,” Anne Perry says in her introduction to this collection. “I never thought of making the three witches the heroines! This is hilarious and so believable. Marcia Talley's “Too Many Cooks” is a cautionary tale with a vengeance. A smile and a shiver all the way through. It could have been that way!”

Marcia's Agatha and Anthony award-winning short stories have appeared in more than a dozen collections, including anthologies edited by New York Times best-selling authors Lawrence Block, Elizabeth George, Laura Lippman, and Anne Perry. They have been selected for inclusion in The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories and The Deadly Bride and 21 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg.

Marcia Talley is the author of ALL THINGS UNDYING and eight previous mystery novels featuring survivor and sleuth, Hannah Ives. Hannah's tenth adventure, A QUIET DEATH, will be published in the summer of 2011 by Severn House.