Pumpkin Spice Peril (Cupcake Bakery Mystery, Band 12) - Softcover

McKinlay, Jenn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 045149265X ISBN 13: 9780451492654

Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2020

Inhaltsangabe

In the twelfth Cupcake Bakery Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay, the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew follows the clever crumb trail of a killer who's anything but cookie-cutter.

Life is all sugar and spice for the Fairy Tale Cupcake bakers--Melanie Cooper is engaged to the delectable Joe DeLaura, Angie Harper and her husband Tate are savoring married life, and the bakery is bustling with happy customers. Until one of their most valued cupcake connoisseurs ends up dead.

Local glass artist and cupcake lover Rene Fischer-Klein has always suffered from a wide variety of health issues. In an effort to cheer her up, her doting husband, Peter, brings her a four-pack of her favorite cupcakes every week. But when the police discover that Rene has been poisoned, there's no sugarcoating the fact that the last things she ate were the bakery's signature pumpkin spice cupcakes! With their lives and bakery at stake, it's up to Mel and Angie to find out who poisoned their artist friend and why, before their future is frosted for good.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Former librarian Jenn McKinlay is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Bluff Point Romances, including Every Dog Has His Day, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, and About a Dog, as well as the Library Lover’s Mysteries, the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries, and the Hat Shop Mysteries. Jenn lives in sunny Arizona in a house that is overrun with kids, pets, and her husband’s guitars.

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One

 

"Hi, how can I help you?" Angie Harper asked the customer across the bakery counter. She had her lips pulled back in what should have been a smile but looked like a grimace instead.

 

Melanie Cooper glanced at her partner. Angie sounded odd, as if she were forcing herself to be friendly when what she really wanted to do was reach across the counter and rip the person's head off. Judging by the wary gaze of the customer, they weren't buying the show of teeth, either.

 

"You okay there, Ange?" Mel asked.

 

"Yes, of course, why wouldn't I be?" Angie frowned. Her long curly dark hair was pulled back in a knot at the nape of her neck. She was dressed in her usual bright pink apron over a tank top and jeans, and she plopped her hands on her hips as if spoiling for a fight.

 

Mel raised her hands in the air. "Just getting a vibe, an unhappy vibe, and I'm willing to step in if you need a sec."

 

"Why would I need a sec? I'm fine, totally fine!" Angie insisted.

 

"Then why are you yelling?" Mel asked.

 

"This isn't yelling!"

 

"Not for nothing, but over on this side of the counter it sounds like yelling," said the customer, a thirty-something man in khaki slacks, sandals, and a festive Hawaiian shirt that was a rowdy repeating pattern of orange hibiscus blossoms and blue macaws. In other words, loud.

 

"I'm so sorry," Angie said. It would have worked as an apology, except she said it in an exaggerated voice that made it clear she wasn't sorry at all.

 

The customer glanced from her to Mel. "Maybe you can help me. I'd like some red velvet cupcakes, please."

 

"Oh, sure, get someone else to help you," Angie said. "Because I'm incompetent, is that it? Is that what you're trying to say?"

 

The man pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows. He was obviously a smart guy, realizing there was no winning here.

 

"He might not say it, but I will." A woman spoke up from the back of the line of people. She had gray hair, twisted into a topknot of corkscrew curls, and she wore a chef's coat in a bright shade of blue. Olivia Puckett.

 

"Oh, crud," Mel said. Owner of a rival bakery, but also dating Marty Zelaznik, one of Mel's employees, Olivia was the last person Angie needed to tussle with right now, as the two women rubbed together about as well as static and hair. "Olivia, don't poke the bear."

 

Angie swiveled her head slowly in Mel's direction. Her voice when she spoke was filled with disbelief. "Did you just call me a bear?"

 

"Um . . . well . . . affectionately," Mel explained. "You know, like a teddy bear, all cute and cuddly and squishy."

 

"Right, or, more accurately, like a ginormous grizzly bear," Angie said. "Admit it, you think I'm fat!"

 

"Oh my god." Mel pressed the heels of her hands against her forehead as if it would keep her head from exploding. "You're not fat, you're not chubby, you're not even pleasantly plump, and I'm an expert as I cycled through all of those stages on repeat for most of my life, as you well know. Honestly, what is going on with you today?"

 

"She looks hormonal to me," Hawaiian Shirt Guy said.

 

"Ah!" Angie sucked in a gasp and glared at him. "I. Am. Not. Hormonal."

 

"Nailed it," Olivia chimed in.

 

Angie whipped around with a glower. "You hush."

 

"Angie!" Mel hissed. They might not like Olivia, but it wouldn't do to verbally abuse her in front of a customer.

 

Olivia laughed and nudged the guy with her elbow. "If you want cupcakes without the drama, you can hit up my bakery, Confections. It's just down the street, and we have red velvets to die for."

 

"Thanks, it's tempting, but I'm already here and I've got my eye on those beauties right there," he said. He tapped the glass case, which displayed a shelf full of red velvet cupcakes. "I can wait out the pregger rage."

 

Angie blinked. "What did you say?"

 

The man turned to look at her. "Pregger rage, you know, the unreasonable fury that comes with being pregnant. My wife was exactly like that when she was expecting our kids. We have four, so I've been at this rodeo before. Yee-haw and congratulations!"

 

"But I'm not . . ." Angie's voice trailed off. Her eyes went wide, and then she clapped a hand over her mouth and ran back into the kitchen.

 

"Vomiting," the man called after her. "That's another symptom."

 

Mel glanced from him to the swinging door, behind which came the unmistakable sound of someone retching. Should she follow, or would Angie punch her in the throat? It was clearly a toss-up.

 

As if they'd been shot out of a cannon, Mel's two bakery workers, Marty Zelaznik and Oz Ruiz, blasted out of the kitchen.

 

"Don't go back there!" Marty said. His eyes were round in his bald head. "It's bad."

 

"Really bad!" Oz confirmed. Standing well over six feet tall and almost as wide, he looked visibly shaken by a tiny woman heaving her guts out.

 

Mel stared at the door. Could Angie really be pregnant? She and her husband Tate had been trying for months. Did it finally take? She needed to call Tate for backup, but she didn't want to blow it if it wasn't true or if Angie wasn't ready to tell him. Dilemma!

 

"Hi, handsome," Olivia called to Marty.

 

"Liv, what are you doing here?" he asked. He beamed at her.

 

"I locked myself out of the house and I need your key," she said. She was staring at the display case full of cupcakes. She pointed to a section of cupcakes that sported festive cherries and striped straws. "Who made those?"

 

"I did," Oz said. "Root beer float cupcakes."

 

Olivia raised one eyebrow. "If they taste as good as they look, you've got some skills."

 

Oz looked pleased. "They do, and I do."

 

While Mel loved seeing his confidence, she wasn't sure she liked the covetous gleam in Olivia's eyes. She knew her rival wouldn't hesitate to sink her hooks into Oz.

 

"You could be doing great things in the culinary world," Olivia said. "And staying in one place of employment for a long time doesn't fill out a chef's résumé or round out their skills."

 

And there she went, trying to poach. Now Mel's internal alarm system was clanging like a fire truck on a call.

 

"Do not even think about trying to pinch my staff for your bakery, Olivia," Mel said. She lowered her voice, hoping she sounded zero tolerance enough.

 

Olivia blinked at her, the picture of innocence. Marty handed her his keys, and Olivia glanced back at Oz and made a call-me gesture with her free hand. With a wink and an air-kiss at Marty, she turned and left the bakery.

 

"Marty, you need to rein her in. I won't have her coming in here trying to take my customers or my assistant chef," Mel said. She glanced at Hawaiian Shirt Guy, who'd been patiently waiting. "Red velvet, did you say?"

 

"Yes," he said. "Two, please, one for now and one for later."

 

Mel smiled at him. She took a two-pack box out from under the counter and folded it into shape before putting two red velvets inside. She passed it off to Marty, who was already ringing up the man's order.

 

The sound of a curse and a door slamming from the kitchen brought her attention back to Angie. She gestured for Oz to take her spot behind the counter as she popped back into the kitchen...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2020
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 045149265X
• ISBN 13: 9780451492654
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 273
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland