APPLE PIES AND POISONED LIES AT THE CIDER FALLS FESTIVAL

A traumatized young woman returns home—only to be accused of murder.

Macki is the oldest of the Smith children, all named after apples: McIntosh, Ambrosia, Jazz, Cortland, and Crispin. Her family has owned an orchard in Cider Falls, Washington, for generations. Although Macki’s MBA prepared her to run the family business, she wanted to strike out on her own and moved to Seattle with ex-fiancé Gary Pullen to start a hand-pie bakery—but both the business and the relationship failed. Now she’s back in Cider Falls, and when she runs into her former best friend, Lisha Felling, while lunching in town, Lisha pushes her to enter the upcoming pie contest. Even though Macki’s previously won the contest five times, she tries to refuse, certain that her skills have deserted her. Only later does she realize that Gary did everything in his power to ruin her dreams, putting her down and swapping out baking ingredients to ruin her pies. Macki’s parents, who run the orchard with her grandmother, are preparing for the Cascades Kayak Cup, an exciting race. An accident while they’re practicing almost kills them and forces everyone to step up for the orchard. Macki had made a friend of Logan Foster, a security guard in the building where she and Gary lived who’s now a private investigator, and the family hires him to look into why their highly rated kayak broke apart. While the Smith parents are in the hospital, Logan lets the other family members use his Seattle apartment and goes to Cider Falls to investigate. That’s lucky for Macki, who’s accused of murder when one of her rivals at the pie contest is killed.

First in a new series with lively characters who solve the murder but leave plenty of unanswered questions.