Saturday, February 02, 2008

Peppermint Twisted - Sammi Carter


Peppermint Twisted
A Candy Shop Mystery
Sammi Carter
Berkley Prime Crime

Mystery

After a stint as a corporate lawyer and a painful divorce, Abby Shaw is back in her small hometown of Paradise, Colorado. To her surprise, her aunt left Abby her candy shop, Divinity, along with all of her recipes. Usually, Abby loves living in a town that’s full of artisans and tourists. Today is not usual. The Paradise Arts Festival was founded fifteen years ago and has gone off without a hitch ever since. With committee chair Meena Driggs at the helm, everyone feels confident. And that’s the problem. Out of the blue, the mayor removed Meena from her post and installed Felicity Asbury.

Felicity’s main qualification seems to be that she’s the wealthiest woman in town; and no one in power wants to say ‘no’ to her. The artisans lined up for the festival aren’t having that problem though. They’re threatening to pull out and shut down the festival after Felicity insisted on having final approval for all the pieces entered. In a scant few hours, the whole endeavor has gone from clockwork to chaos. Abby tries to talk Meena into coming back, if only to bring a bit of calm; but Meena seems strangely defeated. And a visit to Felicity yields nothing but a headache. The next morning, Abby is walking her dog when she sees a car parked in her lot. It’s Felicity. She’s been murdered, and there’s certainly no lack of suspects.

This is the third in this very entertaining series, but can easily be read as a standalone. Abby continues to evolve as a character, and manages to conduct an investigation without rushing heedlessly into danger. Since most of the people in town have known each other all their lives, it’s easy for feelings to run high, adding to the drama. The suspect pool includes everyone involved in the festival, just for a start. There are plenty of others that come to light, as well. And, just to top things off, the author includes some candy recipes that sound divine. It’s always a pleasure to visit Paradise, Colorado and the Divinity candy shop.

Rating: 7
December 2007
ISBN# 978-0-425-21227-1 (paperback)

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