Death by Chocolate Cake: A Hazelbrook Cozy Mystery (The Copper Kettle Mysteries, Book 1)

He came to judge her cake. He died eating it. And the cake was not hers.

Clover Bannister left a Boston hotel kitchen to save her late grandmother's cafe, the Copper Kettle, in Hazelbrook, Vermont. Head judge Roland Pike collapses after eating slice number one of her cake in front of two hundred witnesses. But the slice in the photograph is smaller than hers, browner than hers, and its little piped chocolate kettle points the wrong way. A fair-play mystery: every clue is on the page before the reveal. Warm, clean, and cozy, with the violence off-page.

Inside:

- A fair-play whodunit: a right-leaning kettle, orange in a ganache, a slice from the wrong tin, and more clues to catch

- Red herrings at no extra charge: a rival baker, a hardware man, a son on the late train, and a festival organiser with a secret

- Dumpling, a lemon beagle who supervises from his post by the door, and Chief Ben Hartley

- A cast-of-characters page, a town map and cafe menu plates

- Five real recipes at the back, including Lottie's Midnight Chocolate Cake, all written to be cooked from

Can you solve it before Clover does? Book 1 stands alone. Pull up a chair at the Copper Kettle.