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.
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.
