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SUGAR AND VICE picks up not too long after AND THEN THERE WERE CRUMBS, the first novel in this new series, ends. Kate McGuire has settled pretty comfortably in her new home in Coral Cay on a tiny island off south Florida, far from her hectic life in Manhattan. About all she's kept are her fabulous baking skills as a pastry chef and her feisty character – plenty to qualify her for a new kind of hectic life in a place she is falling in love with, among people she likes and respects.
Kate still lives above Sam Hepplewhite's bakery, though now she has become half owner which allows Sam some down time at last. Since convincing Sam to re-introduce cookies to the bakery cases – after all the shop is named The Cookie Shop – and working her heart out updating its decor and curb appeal, she has begun to try new strategies to continue increasing their business and popularity. Her brand-new sales hook is a cookie-of-the-day contest in which locals drop recipes in a box on the counter and she introduces their choices to the public, one a day as promised. It's working out well and bringing in more customers but it's jamming up against Coral Cay's once-a-year festival in honor of the pirates who founded Coral Cay, especially their somewhat mysterious leader, Sir George Bly, son of an English nobleman. He may have been dead for four hundred years but his fame is suddenly aflame again.
Kate's closest friend – a phenomenally creative florist -- pulls Kate into helping her put three raised beds in her back yard for raising herbs to sell to local restaurants and hotel chefs. The half-grown golden doodle puppy Kate has sort of adopted digs in the last one while Kate and Maxi take a break, and he manages to unearth a decayed leather boot with a silver buckle complete with old dead leg bones ending in it. In true cozy fashion, everyone assumes that it really could be the remains of Sir George whose final resting place has never been found, and the belief that he was buried with a substantial portion of his treasure pulls every crazy for miles out to try to sneak in and dig up the yard and grab it.
The police get involved, arrests ensue, and the body turns out to be much too recent and therefore a possible crime. The local wine dealer whose wife has left him and taken off for Europe decides he is besotted with Kate and starts making his out-of-date moves. And, UGH!, Kate's very much ex- fiancé arrives in town: handsome as ever, enormously wealthy, and claiming to one and all that he adores Kate and that she is still planning to marry him.
Kate and Maxi move into sleuth mode, of course, and as a sideline try to fend off the wine dealer and the ex-fiancé – some of their tactics are pretty clever but it's an uphill battle. This is not a demanding read but the plot is convoluted enough that I didn't see the end coming. Well, I think I'm a mystery expert. Do not respond to that.
I have almost no complaints. This book is fast-paced and entertaining all the way. If these people eat much more sugar MY teeth are going to fall out! I am a bit concerned as one who actually likes dogs that the amount of sugar the dogs are consuming can't be good for them – can dogs develop diabetes? One false step: Kate is uncomfortable when someone else brings a dog into the bakery, worries about Health Department issues – but Oliver, the golden doodle, has the run of every inch of the place, including the kitchen, and he spends quite a bit of his time wandering the little tourist town and going no one knows where. That needs fixing.
Otherwise, take this one to the beach!
§ Diana Borse is retired from teaching English at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and savoring the chance to read as much as she always wanted to.
Reviewed by Diana Borse, April 2020
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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