FLOUR IN THE ATTIC

A baker turns sleuth to solve a murder with overabundant clues.

Ivy Culpepper (The Walking Bread, 2018, etc.) is bummed when her best friend Emmaline Davis’ beachside marriage proposal to Ivy’s brother, Billy, is interrupted by the discovery of the body of Marisol Ruiz floating near the shore. But Ivy’s pique goes nuclear when Sheriff Emmaline reveals that Marisol had been strangled before being dumped in the water. Marisol had been a fixture at Baptista’s Cantina and Grill, where she was not only a beloved longtime employee, but the mother of Sergio Morales, the husband of Miguel Baptista’s sister, Laura. Miguel not only owns Baptista’s, but has a long-term lease on Ivy’s heart: The two were high school sweethearts before Ivy temporarily lost her mind, moved to Austin, and married no-good Luke Holden. Now divorced from Luke and working at Yeast of Eden, an artisanal bakery in her hometown of Santa Sofia, Ivy wants Miguel back. What better way to return to her man’s good graces than to find the lowdown dog who killed his sister’s mother-in-law? Unfortunately, the path to the killer is cluttered. Marisol had been acting strangely since the recent death of her own father, turning away from her second husband, David, and writing urgent messages to her ex-husband, Johnny Morales. She quarreled with some of her children and changed her will. But nobody could have anticipated the depravity Ivy uncovers when she learns of the nasty secret at the heart of Marisol’s murder.

Wheels within wheels power a dark-inflected cozy.