Author: Ruth Baker
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9798401224750; 9798401199607
Clean Tales Publishing
150 Pages
$14.99; $9.99; $2.99 Amazon
January 12, 2022
⭐⭐⭐⭐
When she finds out that an obnoxious woman at an event for the homeless has stolen some of her treats for her business, Lucy gives the lady a piece of her mind in no uncertain terms.
She's left bewildered and sad when this lady is found dead. Did Lucy's harsh words, spoken in the heat of the moment, have an effect on the lady's life or is something more sinister at play?
It seems almost everyone wants to sweep this murder investigation under the carpet, but Lucy knows there's something seriously off.
With Christmas just around the corner, Lucy knows she has to find a killer on the loose or her small town will be having a blue, blue Christmas.
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Lucy Hale's bakery Sweet Treats is finally taking off. She's beginning to make money, but when the pastor asks Lucy to donate cupcakes for the homeless at a local fair, her employee Hannah thinks Lucy is going overboard, and they might fall behind in sales. But Lucy's sure this will bring in more clients, and when a woman who runs a homeless shelter nags Lucy to give her plenty of the free cupcakes for her own clients, Lucy can't do anything but comply.
Yet the next day she discovers that her treats are being sold at a local hotel -- and that the woman who took them runs the hotel. They have words; and Lucy leaves, fuming. Not long after, the woman is found dead, and Lucy feels guilty for the way she treated her. She vows to find out who killed her; suspecting even the woman's husband of the crime. But it won't be easy -- it turns out the woman had a lot of enemies...and they all seem to be coming into the bakery...
This is the fourth book in the series and I have read them all. I feel as if Ms. Baker is finally coming into her own as a writer. While these books are short, easy reads, this one is better than the last three (but don't get me wrong; I enjoyed those as well). The plot is nicely done, the conversations have a little more 'go' to them, and the characters are finding their way around the pages as well.
Lucy has little to go on: only that the woman stole her cupcakes and the fact that her husband and she owned the hotel where the cupcakes were sold in the restaurant. But now the husband wants Lucy to sell her treats at his restaurant, and he's willing to give her a contract, which only muddies the waters for the time being. Yet she wants the business, so is going to try and keep him from finding out -- which won't be easy as he's one of her suspects.
The only thing I disagree with is the fact that Lucy is a bit more timid than I would be. I'd probably shout to everyone leaving the restaurant that those were from my bakery, and they were taken under false pretenses. But ah, that's me; not a character in a book!
But when Lucy starts looking for a killer, everyone in the kitchen had a motive to want the woman dead. Finding the person who had the most to gain is now her job, and it could bring her more than she wanted -- face to face with a cold-blooded murderer.
When the ending comes and the reasons for the murder are revealed, it's rather a sad story all around; even though, as I've stated many times over, there is no excuse for murder (but where would we, as readers, be in mysteries if there were none at all?) I really loved reading this and hope others do, too. Recommended.
I was given a copy of this book from CleanTales Publishing, but it in no way influenced my review.
More on Ruth Baker's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/ruth-baker/
