Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Audio CD; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496706416; 9781541468375
Kensington Publishing (Tantor Audio)
352 Pages
$6.47; $26.20; $5.99 Amazon
February 27, 2018
✮✮
Harvest, Ohio, is a long way from New York City, where Bailey King left a coveted job as a head chocolatier to take over Swissmen Sweets, her Amish grandparents' candy shop. Now, while caring for her recenrly widowed grandmother, she plans to honor her grandfather's memory by entering the annual Amish Confectionery Competition. But between lavender blueberry fudge and chocolate cherry ganache truffles, Bailey may have bitten off more than she can chew when the search for a missing pot-bellied pig turns up a body suffering from sugar overload - the fatal kind...
A candy maker from a neighboring town who wanted Englischer Bailey disqualified for being an outsider, Josephine Weaver died from an allergy to an essential licorice ingredient. The suspects include: Josephine's niece, a young woman going through her rumspringa, or running around time, and Bailey herself. Now it falls to Bailey, who's sweet on the local sheriff's deputy, to clear their names and entice a killer with a cast-iron stomach for cold-blooded murder...
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Bailey King has decided to stay in Harvest, Ohio, and help her grandmother run Swissmen Sweets, the candy shop her grandparents started. She gave up a high-end job in Manhattan to do so, and was recently given the go ahead to stand in for her grandfather at an Amish candy competition. But Josephine Weaver isn't happy about the decision, and has told Bailey she'll find a way to get her out.
Bailey also meets a young girl named Charlotte and discovers she's Josephine's niece. Charlotte is in turmoil over staying or leaving the Amish faith, and Bailey finds her in the church playing the organ. But the sound is off, and when they check, Charlotte finds the body of Josephine stuffed inside.
So now Charlotte is a suspect, and also Bailey because licorice was found in Josephine's pocket and the woman was allergic - licorice that has been stamped with the distinctive Swissmen Sweets logo. In order to clear her name and that of Charlotte - whom she soon learns is a distant relative - Bailey will have to do a little sleuthing on her own...
First off, this book was slightly better than the first, but I still don't understand why the sheriff is in these books. He's made no bones about the fact he doesn't like the Amish; and yet he's sheriff in an Amish community - and running unopposed for re-election. Aiden says he doesn't want to run against him because it's wrong for a deputy to do that, but that's a crock. Many deputies run against the sheriff in almost any community across the nation, so I don't buy that. Yet the sheriff's superiors haven't noticed his attitude toward the Amish? Or don't they care?
This book also makes the Amish look like bigoted jerks. I’ve been around Amish people - a lot. They don’t hate Englischers. In fact, they deal with them quite nicely, as it is the Amish way to be decent to everyone (unless they have been slighted in some way). It’s as if they don’t care that her grandfather died, they have no sympathy for her or the position her grandmother was put in. Amish people accept the decisions made - yet they were unwilling to accept decisions by those in charge in this instance? It didn’t ring true for me.
Following is a major spoiler of this book, as it contains major plot points, the reason for the murder, and a reference to an event in the previous book, so if you don't want to know these things, please don't read on.
There were also things said about the Amish that didn't seem believable to me. They are treated as gossip mongers and people who have a hatred of outsiders (they keep to themselves and don't usually 'hang around' Englishers), and think the worst of everyone (except Bailey's grandmother). Unless the Ohio Amish are different from the Pennsylvania Amish, I believe this is giving people a false view; no, they're not perfect, but they are God-fearing, and would consider anything against the Bible (as in treating people how you want to be treated) as evil.
I also don't see why Bailey was even wondering why she didn't win everything; Emily did all the work. All Bailey did was help pour or stretch taffy. She was never at her booth because she was off investigating (like she couldn't have done that after the competition had ended for the day). Obviously she didn't take it seriously.
Plus I didn't understand why Bailey had to buy a clunker of a car. She was first in line to be head chocolatier, was she not?. What happened to all her money? Was she being paid in chocolate? She must have lived somewhere yet no mention is made of her giving up her apartment/condo or selling her furniture (maybe buy a decent car?). Did she just abandon everything when she moved back to Ohio? Did she waste her paycheck partying or shopping? Again, I have a hard time believing she was in such a "high-powered job" and didn't make enough money to have a healthy savings account. There's no way she should be so broke she can't afford a good vehicle. Just because she made the choice to return home shouldn't translate to: 'I have to go back and care for my grandmother. Unfortunately, when I make the move I'll have to abandon my bank account and have to start from scratch'. (Honestly, I'm getting really tired of all these protagonists with 'high-powered jobs' returning home and not having any savings. What are they doing? Partying all night and paying the bill for all of their friends?)
Since there was a preview of the next book, here's a clue for the author: The Amish don't like their picture taken. They would never allow anyone to film them (these are not teenagers who have not been baptized into the faith, these are full-blown Amish). The Amish hold humility as a highly-cherished value and view pride as a threat to community harmony. Because photographs can call attention to one's self, they are prohibited at home. Moreover, the Amish believe that photographs in which they can be recognized violate the Biblical commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thyself a graven image." They want to be remembered by the lives they lived and the examples they left, not by physical appearance; so they wouldn't allow anyone to come in and film them for a reality show (Amish teens on rumspringa are very different than the Amish community. A film crew in the candy store would not have been allowed). But then again, I've only been around the Lancaster Amish - maybe the Ohio Amish are different.
I realize this is a work of fiction, but I've always believed in the rule that unless it's sci-fi or fantasy, if it wouldn't happen in real life, it shouldn't happen in a book. I would have liked to have rated it higher, but I honestly couldn't do so.
Plus I didn't understand why Bailey had to buy a clunker of a car. She was first in line to be head chocolatier, was she not?. What happened to all her money? Was she being paid in chocolate? She must have lived somewhere yet no mention is made of her giving up her apartment/condo or selling her furniture (maybe buy a decent car?). Did she just abandon everything when she moved back to Ohio? Did she waste her paycheck partying or shopping? Again, I have a hard time believing she was in such a "high-powered job" and didn't make enough money to have a healthy savings account. There's no way she should be so broke she can't afford a good vehicle. Just because she made the choice to return home shouldn't translate to: 'I have to go back and care for my grandmother. Unfortunately, when I make the move I'll have to abandon my bank account and have to start from scratch'. (Honestly, I'm getting really tired of all these protagonists with 'high-powered jobs' returning home and not having any savings. What are they doing? Partying all night and paying the bill for all of their friends?)
Since there was a preview of the next book, here's a clue for the author: The Amish don't like their picture taken. They would never allow anyone to film them (these are not teenagers who have not been baptized into the faith, these are full-blown Amish). The Amish hold humility as a highly-cherished value and view pride as a threat to community harmony. Because photographs can call attention to one's self, they are prohibited at home. Moreover, the Amish believe that photographs in which they can be recognized violate the Biblical commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thyself a graven image." They want to be remembered by the lives they lived and the examples they left, not by physical appearance; so they wouldn't allow anyone to come in and film them for a reality show (Amish teens on rumspringa are very different than the Amish community. A film crew in the candy store would not have been allowed). But then again, I've only been around the Lancaster Amish - maybe the Ohio Amish are different.
I realize this is a work of fiction, but I've always believed in the rule that unless it's sci-fi or fantasy, if it wouldn't happen in real life, it shouldn't happen in a book. I would have liked to have rated it higher, but I honestly couldn't do so.
https://www.amazon.com/Lethal-Licorice-Amish-Candy-Mystery/dp/1496706412/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2420782488
More on Amanda Flower's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/amanda-flower/
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