Piper Donavon is a 27-year-old actress whose character was
killed off on a popular soap opera and now has no real
prospects for work. When it becomes clear that she's not
going to be acting anytime soon, she gives up her Manhattan
apartment and moves back in with her parents. Her mother,
Terri, is a baker and owns The Icing on the Cupcake bakery.
Vin, Piper's father, is very much into being prepared for
disasters of any and all kinds. Piper loves her parents and
grew up helping her mother bake and decorate cakes, cookies,
cupcakes and anything else that Terri made. So she's fine
with helping her mother out at the bakery from time to time.
However, her true love is acting and she wants to get back
to that as soon as she can.
In the meantime, her good friend is getting married and
wants Piper's mom to make her wedding cake. Piper is
astounded when Terri refuses to make it because she's "too
busy." So Piper agrees to make it instead, although she
knows something is going on with her mother. Terri has never
turned down baking business and she's been making a lot of
mistakes lately.
Piper becomes involved in a celebrity auction to benefit an
exclusive girls' school that her friend's fiance teaches
at. The evening is going great until one of the celebrity
auctioneer's drinks a glass of water onstage and collapses.
He's dead before he reaches the hospital. The question among
people close to the event is whether or not he was the
intended victim. It seems that Piper's friend has been
getting anonymous notes warning her against getting married.
As the bodies start to pile up, Piper realizes that there's
much more to all of this than anyone knows. She turns to her
FBI friend, Jack, for help in figuring it all out. There's a
definite attraction between these two but Piper doesn't want
to risk their friendship if a relationship doesn't pan out.
But Jack is more than willing to help her and, before long,
he's also involved in the investigation.
Can the mystery be solved and the murderer stopped before
more people get hurt? And what is going on with Terri?
TO HAVE AND TO KILL is the first book in a brand new series
by Mary Jane Clark. She's calling this series A Wedding Cake
Mystery and this first entry is an absolute delight to read!
Ms. Clark has her characters down so that you get involved
with all of them immediately. I cared about these people and
want to know more about them. This means that I'll be
keeping an eye out for the second book in this series. Not
only do you get a great murder mystery, but you also get
some guidance on making wedding cakes thrown in. At the end
of the book, there's even a recipe included for Piper's
Simple Buttercream Icing. Do yourself a favor and spend some
time reading this book.
Piper Donovan never imagined that decorating wedding cakes
could be so dangerous! A struggling actress with no
immediate prospects and a recently broken engagement, Piper
moves back in with her parents to take stock of her life.
She steps tentatively into the family bakery business and
finds herself agreeing to create a wedding cake for the
acclaimed star of a daytime television drama. But soon
someone close to the bride-to-be is horribly murdered and it
seems that that someone is ruthlessly determined to stop the
wedding.
With the help of her former neighbor, Jack, a handsome FBI
agent with a soft spot for the gorgeous cake-maker, Piper
moves closer to the truth. And as she narrows in on a
suspect, she realizes that it's hotter in the kitchen than
she may be able to handle. . . .
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