Friday, January 1, 2010

Sprinkle With Murder-Jenn McKinlay

Sprinkle With Murder
Jenn McKinlay
Berkley, Mar 2010, $6.99
ISBN: 9780425233429

Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura own Fairy Tale Cupcakes along with silent partner rich Tate Harper. The trio has been best friends since grade school and soon the threesome will become a foursome when Tate marries fashion designer Christie Stevens, a spoiled fashionista diva and all around nasty person. She tells Mel and Angie to make five hundred cupcakes, but insists each have five original flavors that she will legally own.

Mel goes to the home of the queen of mean for a tasting, but finds the designer dead with a partially eaten cupcake nearby. The toxicology report shows the cupcake contained arsenic, but the victim’s stomach did not. The police target Mel as the prime suspect while the media crucifies her and Tate when a photographer caught them in an innocent clinch in which she was comforting her friend, but the photo made them look like lovers. Not trusting the cops who want the case solved or the reporters who want a scandal Mel believes neither will seek the truth if that intrudes on their respective preference. Thus, Mel investigates knowing she better find the killer before she goes on trial and besides she needs to save their business. However, her plan was not to become victim number two although the culprit disagrees with her and perhaps as bad traps her with her adversarial rival Olivia.

Sprinkle With Murder is the opening culinary amateur sleuth of a new series that will elate fans of cozies. The three BFFs are fully developed with fun quirks making each different while the late fiancée is a malicious caricature of Cruella. With recipes and an egg nod to Kill Bill 2, fans will enjoy the fun Sprinkle with Murder.

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