MURDER AT AN IRISH BAKERY

A sweet assignment turns sour for dessert-loving Garda Siobhán O’Sullivan.

A bakery housed in a small-town flour mill is hosting a TV baking competition being funded by an anonymous benefactor and featuring famous Irish baker Aoife McBride, who recently had a “freak-out” at a Fan Club Appreciation Day. The show gets off to a rocky start when a man chanting “Sugar kills!” gets his sweaty nose powdered by Aoife, who says she only wants to help him look better on TV; shortly afterward, he has some kind of attack that sends him to the hospital. Once the show starts filming, the hosts seem intent on setting the bakers against each other. The protestor’s death in the hospital prompts an investigation as William Bains, a closemouthed solicitor who represents the anonymous funder, arrives with messages and packages containing secret weapons to help with the next round. After four hours in which contestants are free to bake whatever they want, some masterpieces emerge, but so does the dead body of Aoife, facedown in a cherry pie. Two accidental deaths seem a bit much, and the solicitor, who might have provided answers, has vanished. Siobhán’s husband, DS Macdara Flannery, who’s even more addicted to sweets than she is, takes over the case. The show goes on, if only to keep all the suspects in town while the married sleuths look to the past and present for motives.

Plenty of likely prospects and an endless supply of sweet treats brighten the path to the solution.