WARNING: Do not read this book if you are on a diet! Samantha Sweet, the heroine of this entertaining tale, is a baker by trade and inclination, and the book is full of loving descriptions of her creations, starting with a triple-chocolate cupcake with chocolate butter cream on the very first page of chapter one. But Sam also looks after empty houses and checking out one of those leads her into investigating a suspicious death, with the help of a mysterious box she has been left by an elderly lady …
This is a gentle book, softly-paced and involving very real people. Sam, her daughter Kelly, and her is-he-is-he-not? love interest, Deputy Sheriff Beau Cardwell, are the sort of people you might meet and like everyday. Perhaps the villains of the piece are slightly less well-imagined than the sympathetic characters, and occasionally the gentle pace dips too much causing a lapse in tension, but overall this is a delightful read and the supernatural element is very delicately and convincingly done.
I’m just off to get the next one in the series …
(reviewed 18 days after purchase)