SIX SWEETS UNDER

A former actress returns to her small Vermont town intending to make chocolates and solves a mystery on the side.

Can you ever really go home again? wonders Rebecca Ransom, who has traded her life as an actress for the simpler pleasures of Larch Haven. Becca thinks she’s found happiness in taking over chocolate-making responsibilities at True Confections, the little shop owned by her perfectly dubbed grandparents Lolly and Pops. She’s even developed her own creation, a chocolate gondola, in celebration of the town’s boats, which are used for transportation, just as in Venice. Not that Becca would ever want to steer one of the gondolas for herself: Just the thought of it sends her into a panic. But she thinks she’s found her happy place even if her boyfriend, Justin, expresses his doubts during his visit from Hollywood. And Becca’s surrounded by other folks who think small-town life is bliss—all except for town curmudgeon Archie Smith, who never found a fight he couldn’t pick. His latest battle is with Pops over a vintage scooter, and even though Pops has 20 years on Archie, Archie still takes a swing at him. Unbelievable. When a body is found in a canal not too long after, Becca isn’t shocked to discover it’s Archie, though the fact that even a mean-spirited man like him has been murdered is a surprise in such a close-knit community. Did Archie simply choose the wrong enemy, or could his death have something to do with the disappearance 10 years ago of teen Lexi Derendorf, the only other mysterious event in Larch Haven history?

Like the included recipes, it’s all very simple and goes down easy.