“When the pig went missing, I knew there would be trouble,” Bailey King, Lethal Licorice by Amanda Flower. How can anyone resist a book that has that for an opening line? Especially if that person has read the first in this series, Assaulted Caramel, and already knows about the silly little spotted pig known as Jethro! (If you don’t, you should really read that first book but this one works fine as a stand alone.)
My Goodreads review:
Lethal Licorice by Amanda Flower
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh my goodness, this was a great second book in what I had already decided is one of my favorite series back when I read the first book. How could you go wrong with a book that has an opening line of “When the pig went missing, I knew there would be trouble.” And trouble there was! From murder to possible sabotage/framing to rumspringa, this story has a lot of issues to resolve.
In Harvest, Ohio the Amish Confectionary Contest was a huge thing. Since Bailey has moved there and given up her NY chocolatier career to help her Amish grandma in their shop Swissmen Sweets, she naturally assumed she’d be in the contest as well since even though she herself was not Amish, the shop was and she was using Amish methods, meaning no modern shortcuts.
Of course a local woman Josephine, who wasn’t well liked to begin with, found fault with this and complained every chance she got even though the judges were in agreement, one being kind of grudgingly in agreement. Most people thought Josephine got what she deserved when she was found by her niece Charlotte, who was going through her rumspringa time. Josephine didn’t have to worry about whether Bailey should be in the contest anymore. This put both Charlotte and Bailey first on the suspect list even though good-hearted deputy Aiden Brody knew in his heart neither had done it. Bailey was determined to find out what really happened.
There were definitely a lot of good suspects in this and I have to say I sure didn’t see the ending coming. I had no idea who did it and was very surprised by the person as well as the reason.
Going back to the first line in the book, yes the little pig Jethro who belonged to Juliet Brody, deputy sheriff Aiden Brody’s mother, went missing and the whole town went looking for him. I remember the little pig from the first book being such a stinker so this story line was pretty entertaining since I knew that nothing bad could possibly happen to little Jethro. He was found, the perp was caught and everything with Charlotte worked out as well. I really liked the character of Charlotte and I hope she might be in the next book or maybe drop by in the future.
I highly recommend this well-written and entertaining book that I read in one day. Can’t wait till the next book comes out!
Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery 