Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496722027
Kensington Publishing
286 Pages
$7.99; $6.89 Amazon
June 25, 2019
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Bailey King's in New York wrapping up a six-week shoot on her first cable TV show, Bailey's Amish Sweets, when she gets a call from her Ohio town's resident busybody. With Easter around the corner, Bailey's been recruited to create a giant toffee bunny for the weeklong springtime festival that will also feature live white rabbits. But back home in Harvest, death becomes the main attraction when Stephen Raber keels over from an apparent heart attack -- with Bailey and Raber's pet bunny as witnesses.
Except it wasn't Raber's heart that suddenly gave out -- a lethal dose of lily of the valley was mixed into a tasty piece of toffee. Who'd want to poison a jovial rabbit farmer who reminded Bailey of an Amish Santa Claus? To solve the murder, she and her sheriff deputy boyfriend Aiden must uncover a twenty-year-old secret. She'll need to pull a rabbit out of a hat to keep a healthy distance from toxic people, including one venomous killer...
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Bailey King moved to Harvest, Ohio after her Amish grandfather passed away to help her grandmother Clara run Swissmen Sweets, the family candy shop. Since she was a chocolatier in New York, she has the background and experience to do so. Recent circumstances also resulted in her gaining a part-time television show on a food network, and she spends time in New York, bringing along Clara's young cousin Charlotte as part of the shoot.
After receiving a call from Margot Rawlings, the town's event coordinator, and when Bailey gets home, Margot is in a tizzy, wanting Bailey to create a giant toffee rabbit for the town square. After she gets Bailey to agree, she thinks that will be the end of it. But while Bailey is speaking with Margot, an Amish rabbit farmer named Stephen Raber drops dead in front of them. Stephen was well loved by everyone in the Amish community, and even had Puff, one of the rabbits, as his own pet. When Stephen's son Eli shows up at Bailey's home one night with Puff, she's wary of his presence, but he explains that his friend Daniel Keim, now married to Bailey's employee Emily, had told him that Bailey could help him find his father's killer.
He gives her a handful of threatening notes his father had been receiving, and tells her he doesn't trust the police but Daniel trusts her and that's all he needs to know. He also leaves Puff with her, telling Bailey he can't care for her, and he is out the door. When Bailey calls Aiden, he's upset, but understands, since he knows the Amish. Now Bailey's stuck in the middle of a murder investigation once again, but this time it might be the last one...
This is the fourth book in the series, and I have to say that while I wasn't impressed with the first one, they've definitely improved and I've come to enjoy this series very much. I like the fact that Bailey cares for the people around her, not just her grandmother, and wants everyone to find the happiness she's found in Harvest. She's also still forming her relationship with Aiden; after a disastrous one in New York, she's trying to trust again, and decide if he's the right one. She's also fending off questions from Aiden's flighty mother Juliet, who's already planning their wedding...which they've never even discussed.
When Raber dies, it's first believed a heart attack, but then Aiden tells her he was murdered, and how it was done. Wondering who wanted the kindly farmer dead, Bailey can't find an answer. Everyone in his community loved him, yet once she sees the notes she knows there was at least one person who wanted him gone. It's an interesting mystery that takes the tiniest of clues to lead her to finding the killer, and it's done very well.
While I knew the identity of the murderer almost immediately, (as I've said before, I read a lot of mysteries), it was nicely done watching Bailey put all the clues together to finally come to the realization of whom the murderer was. And when we discover the reason why Raber was killed, it was rather sad nevertheless. But the ending gives us a nice surprise, and something to look forward to in the next book. Recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Toffee-Amish-Candy-Mystery/dp/1496722027/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3366699459
More on Amanda Flower's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/amanda-flower/
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