GIVE FUDGE A CHANCE

Winning a candy contest brings nothing but trouble to a fudge-making Michigan hotelier.

Allie McMurphy hopes that winning the Mackinac County Fair’s candy contest will bring good publicity to the McMurphy Hotel and Fudge Shop. After she wins, however, the publicity isn’t exactly the kind she wanted. When she and her friend Jenn Carpenter visit the fair’s haunted murder mansion, they find a dead body. It’s far from a first for Allie, who’s stumbled on quite a few corpses since she moved to Mackinac Island, much to the despair of her boyfriend, police officer Rex Manning. To add to her woes, she’s accused of bribing the candy contest judges by Christine Keller, whose caramels have won best in show for 20 years and who doesn’t accept Allie’s win gracefully. The friends who’ve helped Allie solve past crimes are eager for her to look into carnival attractions owner Mike Sanders’ death, but it’s not till Hazel Green falls or is thrown off the McMurphy’s roof that she starts sleuthing. Hazel was deeply involved in parkour, an activity that required her to travel to a destination by jumping from roof to roof. Allie’s little dog, Mal, sniffs out clues, and even her cat lends a paw, leading her to one of a series of underground tunnels that are being used for nefarious purposes. The two murder investigations become one as Allie and Rex find connections between them that are confusing but eventually lead to a solution.

An enjoyable character-driven whodunit that mixes murder with a touch of romance and the requisite sweet treats.