An Amish Candy Shop Mystery sounded intriguing, if sticky -- so I indulged my sweet tooth with LETHAL LICORICE. I was actually surprised that there would be a competition among Amish candy makers -- I thought that would lead to pride. The small town of Harvest, Ohio hosts a contest and contenders come from all around. Bailey King has come here from a job as a chocolatier and runs her late grandfather's store. She's not Amish, nor trying to pretend she is. But some folks object to her taking her grandfather's place -- even if she uses all the same implements and traditional methods.

Looking for Jethro, her pet pig, Bailey trots inside the local church. Jethro loves the Reverend. But the church today holds a tragic situation. Someone has died in the church organ, or died and been pushed in through the little door. Deputy Aiden Brody has a case on his hands.

Family matters -- Bailey learning that she has cousins, for a start -- and taffy pulling merge irresistibly into a smooth, sweet background for this energetic mystery. The local ladies give Bailey advice on marrying -- sooner rather than later, they say, and she should lock down Aiden Brady -- but a large part of their enthusiasm is because they think women should have lots of babies instead of running shops. Bailey's not averse to marrying, but right now she needs to track down some traditional peppermint or licorice extracts.

Enjoy the mystery, the past mingling with present, and the nicely drawn characters. At the end there's a recipe for a licorice treat. It takes almost that long to find the poor pig, and I won't reveal where. Amanda Flower will keep you guessing with LETHAL LICORICE the second in her lively series.

Book Summary

Harvest, Ohio, is a long way from New York City, where Bailey King left a coveted job as a head chocolatier to take over Swissmen Sweets, her Amish grandparents’ candy shop. Now, while caring for her recently widowed grandmother, she plans to honor her grandfather’s memory by entering the annual Amish Confectionery Competition. But between lavender blueberry fudge and chocolate cherry ganache truffles, Bailey may have bitten off more than she can chew when the search for a missing pot-bellied pig turns up a body suffering from sugar overload—the fatal kind . . .

A candy maker from a neighboring town who wanted Englischer Bailey disqualified for being an outsider, Josephine Weaver died from an allergy to an essential licorice ingredient. The suspects include: Josephine’s niece, a young woman going through her rumspringa, or running around time, and Bailey herself. Now it falls to Bailey, who’s sweet on the local sheriff’s deputy, to clear their names and entice a killer with a cast-iron stomach for cold-blooded murder.