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First-Degree Fudge
By Christine DeSmet
Available in Paperback and eBook
Overview
New candy store owner Ava Oosterling specializes in making heavenly homemade fudge and fresh starts. But she’s just found out that her newest flavor is to die for.
Between getting her store up and running and uneasily settling back into her charming Lake Michigan hometown, Ava has her plate full. She hopes using her flavorful imagination to cook up one-of-a-kind fudge will also create a brand-new start for her. And if she can tempt wealthy ex-film star Rainetta Johnson to try her newest crreation, Cinderella Pink, maybe her road to big-time success will be short and sweet.
But when Rainetta chokes to death on a stolen diamond hidden in the fudge’s fluffy depths, Ava is pegged as the prime suspect. Now saving her business and reputation means investigating a batch of townspeople who had numerous reasons to hate disdainful, hard-bargaining Rainetta. With Ava’s best friend and her former flame in the suspect mix she must figure out who the real culprit is fast or face a very bitter end.
“A light-hearted confection that cozy mystery readers will devour.”–Lucy Burdette, author, Topped Chef
Hot Fudge Frame-Up
By Christine DeSmet
Available in Paperback and eBook
Overview
Candy shop owner Ava Oosterling mixes it up with a fudge judge with a grudge–who loses his life before he can pick a winner! …
Ava is gearing up for the First Annual Fudge Festival–a huge celebration that could draw national attention to her old-fashioned fudge shop in Door County, Wisconsin. She’s invited two celebrity chefs to go head-to-head with her in a fudge contest. Everyone is having a tasty time…until a judge for the festival is found dead.
To her shock, he’d been complaining around town that her Fairy Tale fudge flavors were…well, fudged. Now the sheriff is wondering if Ava fits the mold for a murder suspect. As Ava tries to square her reputation and find the real killer, she’s in for a whole batch of trouble…
“Will delight candy aficionados and mystery lovers. A must read!”–Liz Mugavero, author, A Biscuit, a Casket
Five-Alarm Fudge
By Christine DeSmet
Available in Paperback and eBook
Overview
A recipe to kill for? It’s autumn in Fishers’ Harbor, Wisconsin, and fudge shop owner Ava Oosterling is busy preparing for the harvest festival and a visit from some royal relatives who live in Belgium. According to Ava’s grandpa, a famous divinity fudge recipe from the 1860s–a treat fit for a prince–is hidden somewhere in a local historical church.
When a fire in the church reveals the body of a murdered man, it looks like someone is willing to go to any length to possess the valuable secret to the divinity fudge. As Ava searches for the killer–and the recipe–she could us a little divine intervention, because she may have bitten off more than she can chew…
“An action-filled story with a likable heroine and fun setting. And, oh, the fudge.” –JoAnna Carl, national bestselling author, Chocoholic Mysteries
Deadly Fudge Divas
By Christine DeSmet
Available in Paperback and eBook
Overview
A taste of trouble is in the air when a group of well-heeled, fudge-loving women descend on Ava Oosterling’s newly acquired and lovingly refurbished bed & breakfast inn for a chocolate lovers’ getaway.
When one of the women turns up dead–and Ava’s grandfather is a prime suspect–Ava plunges into the thick of a murder case stickier than her candy store’s line of Fairy Tale fudge flavors and the chocolate facials the women adore at the local spa. It’s springtime and the start of the tourist season in Fishers’ Harbor, Wisconsin. Ava has opened the Blue Heron inn with the help of handsome construction worker Dillon Rivers.
Unfortunately, Dillon’s mother–Ava’s ex-mother-in-law–is among the secretive divas who become suspects along with Grandpa.
Undercover Fudge
By Christine DeSmet
Available in Paperback and eBook
Overview
Candy shop owner Ava Oosterling has her hands full when her best friend Pauline Mertens takes a summer job as a wedding coordinator–with the nuptials and reception scheduled in mere days in the back yard of Ava’s Blue Heron Inn overlooking Lake Michigan’s bay.
To help out her best friend, Ava is intent on making the table favors–edible fudge lighthouses patterned after their county’s 11 lighthouses.
Unfortunately, trying to finish the luscious ruby chocolate lighthouses becomes elusive. The sheriff informs Ava that a band of thieves storming the country may have targeted this wedding. And that’s because there’s proof Pauline’s mother is associated with the thieves.
When the sheriff asks Ava to go undercover, she finds herself in an emotional quagmire. Pauline’s mother only recently returned to Fishers’ Harbor after years of estrangement from her daughter. And, Coletta Mertens now works as the housekeeper at Ava’s inn. Has Ava’s fudge-and-wine hospitality provided a hideout for a criminal?
Unfortunately, “until death do us part” takes a murderous twist involving Ava’s Grandpa Gil, the dog Lucky Harbor, and Ava’s own beau.
When Rudolph Was Kidnapped
By Christine DeSmet
Available in eBook
Overview
When her pet reindeer, Rudolph, is stolen from the live animal display, first-grade teacher Crystal Hagan has a big problem on her hands. Her students fear that Christmas will be canceled. Ironically, the prime suspect is a man who lives in a mansion known as the “North Pole.” And to her shock, Peter LeBarron admits to kidnapping Rudolph and he won’t give him back without some romantic “negotiations.”
Misbehavin’ in Moonstone
By Christine DeSmet
Available in eBook
Overview
When the men of Moonstone, Wisconsin, suddenly seem to be off fishing a lot in the evenings, thus cutting down on her new restaurant’s business, chef Kirsten Peplinski becomes suspicious. She discovers a topless touring boat has set up business in Lake Superior, just outside the jurisdiction of Moonstone. She sets out to give a “dressing down” to the boat’s owner, but Jonathon VanBrocklin kidnaps her, having “undressing” and marrying her on his mind.
Mrs. Claus and the Moonstone Murder
By Christine DeSmet
Available in Paperback and eBook
Overview
On her second day of duty, new county deputy Lily Schuster finds herself smack dab in the middle of Moonstone, Wisconsin, trouble. She arrests archeologist Marcus Linden for trespassing, then finds she needs his help in solving the murder of a pie contest judge. The suspects involve none other than the town’s Santa, Henri LeBarron, an eighty-four-year-old man now cavorting with the sexy, mysterious newcomer, Felicity Start, twenty-seven. But can Lily trust her trespassing prisoner, Marcus, who seems to be willing to exchange kisses for clemency?
When the Dead People Brought a Dish-to-Pass
By Christine DeSmet
Available in Paperback and eBook
Overview
Three days before Halloween, Alyssa Swain finds a man dead in his car but, once she gets help, the body is gone. When scruffy, tall, dead man John Christopherson shows up alive on her doorstep, he insists she called him to help her get ready for a party in which dead relatives from decades and centuries ago plan to participate. Now the crazy man won’t leave her house or her heart. How can she keep him from crossing over into the afterlife at midnight on Halloween?