Sophie Mae Reynolds has volunteered to work the telephone crisis center help referral in the evenings at Heaven House. On her first night she upsets a caller who is threatening suicide and the man gets very angry and scary. Philip Heaven, the director of Heaven House, disconnects the call and sends Sophie home. Philip receives monies to run the nonprofit center from a grant funded by his late grandfather who started the project over a year ago. Philip has plans to improve and expand the center, but seems to be taking his own sweet time in doing so. Philip's cousin, Jude Carmichael, has recently moved to Cadyville and is also helping out at the center.

All the volunteers at Heaven House get together and have a private "preserves exchange" of their homemade specialties on a regular basis. Sophie and her housemate Meghan Bly are looking forward to stocking their pantry with all the luscious goodies. However, the day of the exchange Sophie finds Philip collapsed on his kitchen floor and he tells her "Threat. Meant it." Philip dies at the hospital and the cause of death is ruled as botulism. All of the preserved goods are confiscated. Speaking of botulism, Sophie's boyfriend, police detective Barr Ambrose, is in the hospital recovering from a case of food poisoning.

Nothing can convince Sophie that anything the volunteers canned would contain botulism, and honestly believes that Philip was murdered. She is told by the police that the case is closed, and it has been turned over to the state health department. In between running her cottage industry of handmade toiletries, and taking care of Barr since his hospital release, Sophie is trying to track down Philip's killer. She also has a stalker -- the suicidal caller from the center has tracked her down and is harassing her.

This is the second book in the Home Crafting Mystery series, following LYE IN WAIT, and features a wonderful ensemble of characters. Sophie, Meghan, Meghan's eleven- year-old daughter, Erin, and Barr are a terrific group of people you will be glad you have met. Meghan is getting real serious over a newcomer to Cadyville, Jonathan Bell, even though Sophie is suspicious of him. Cricket McRae delivers another satisfying and clever novel with an intriguing plot -- murder by botulism -- great characters, suspense, and many surprises.

Book Summary

A reputation as a small town busybody sleuth. A gum-cracking boss who keeps calling her "babe." Now a suicidal phone stalker? Great.

After solving the messy mystery of her neighborhood handyman's lye-induced death, thirty-something Sophie Mae Reynolds makes preserves by day and answers phones at a crisis center by night. What better way to keep a low profile? But on her very first night, Sophie Mae gets a call from a man who is threatening suicide . . . and her. Overhearing the caller's irate outbursts, her morally bankrupt boss Philip Heaven severs the line. As harassing calls to her home increase, Philip comes down with a deadly case of food poisoning. And his eerie last words keep ringing in Sophie Mae's ears: "Threat. Meant it." Now stirring up the town with talk of murder-by-preserves, Sophie Mae and her hunky boyfriend Detective Barr are on a blood-red trail of rancid beets to find and stop the crafty killer.