A GOOD DAY TO PIE
by Carol Culver
A small-town mystery proves that even a harmless piece of pie can be deadly.
Hanna Denton is ready for peace and quiet when she moves back to her hometown of Crystal Cove, Calif. Her one promise of excitement is her decision to take over The Upper Crust, her Grannie Louise’s pie shop, in the hopes of refining the shop’s old recipes. Even Grannie is set for relaxation, having left The Upper Crust to move into the posh retirement community Heavenly Acres. Life is easy as pie for the two until Grannie’s bridge nemesis, Mary Brandt, dies right after eating a slice of Cranberry Walnut Cream Pie. Brand-new Police Chief (and Hanna’s old school crush) Sam Genovese immediately suspects poor Grannie of having eliminated Mary, who, after all, was her biggest competition at the bridge table. Now Hanna has to balance running the shop with trying to clear Grannie’s name. Her task is made easier by Mary’s many enemies—the old girl was a bit of a troublemaker—but Hanna must figure out which of them had the most to gain by Mary’s death. All the while, Hanna tries to run interference between her Grannie and Sam, hoping that she can get to the bottom of things before her former heartthrob puts Grannie away for good. This debut mystery from Culver (Rich Girl: A BFF Novel, 2008, etc.) will have cozy fans lining up for a second helping.