DEATH OF AN ICE CREAM SCOOPER

Sweet treats turn deadly when Hayley Powell investigates murder in an ice cream shop.

When Hayley craves some Sea Salt Caramel from Bar Harbor Ice Cream, owner Lynette Partridge obliges with a delivery to Hayley’s Kitchen. Lynette complains about coping with the motley crew of college kids working for her, but Haley forgets about her friend’s problems when her son, Dustin, arrives from California with MacKenzie, his very pregnant girlfriend. As if that weren’t enough, Hayley has to referee between her two best friends, Liddy and Mona, who square off when they realize they’ve both been dating the same man, and soothe Lynette, who thinks her husband’s cheating on her. All this drama is suddenly eclipsed by Lynette’s next delivery to Hayley, which includes the corpse of Miranda Fox, one of her scoopers, in the back of the ice cream truck. There are plenty of obvious suspects. Miranda was being stalked by Mona’s son, Chet, and she and some fellow scoopers were living it up in a rental along with a handsome local boy who’s dating the daughter of a famous wealthy couple. But Lynette can’t help fearing that Miranda was the object of her husband’s affections. Hayley, who’s been involved with many a murder, learns that Miranda was killed with a rare poison hidden in the odd ice cream flavor she preferred. Chet admits his infatuation but fingers Dustin’s old high school bud Spanky McFarland as someone else involved with Miranda, pushing Hayley to investigate further.

Plenty of suspects interspersed with ice cream recipes beloved of the foodie sleuth.