December 1, 2022
Things heat up fast when a baker investigates a customer's murder. Josh Prentiss is a longtime fixture at Yeast of Eden, Olaya Solis' artisan bread shop. Most mornings, he orders a pastry and coffee, then holds court at one of the shop's tables, greeting his many friends and conducting business via cellphone. So when Josh is murdered and the authorities speculate that the poison that killed him might have been introduced in a bite of bread, the citizens of Santa Sofia are outraged. First they storm the bakery, and then they boycott. Olaya fears for her livelihood. That's when Ivy Culpepper, Olaya's friend and employee, springs into action. Even before the police decide that bread may not have carried the poison that killed Josh, Ivy begins to unearth evidence that the genial businessman was not what he'd seemed. His estranged wife turns up, asserting that the two were reconciled. So does a bevy of girlfriends, each claiming exclusive rights to Josh's affections. Even worse, many of the women had invested hefty sums in Josh's business ventures, money that's now nowhere to be found. As the web of Josh's misdeeds grows, so does Ivy's determination to bring his murderer to justice, much as he may have deserved his deadly fate. Archer's heroine sifts through a surfeit of suspects to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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