Kneaded for Murder

A poisoned pastry. A perfect hostess. And a baker who knows her own bread.

Charisma Finnegan has finally found her footing in Cypress Bend, Florida - a stall at the Saturday farmers market, a growing reputation, and a sourdough starter named Vincent VanDough who is, frankly, insufferable about it. When the town's most powerful woman invites Charisma to cater the exclusive Sunflower Charity Brunch, it feels like an arrival. Old money. Donor tables. White linen and orchids. The kind of room that decides who belongs in Cypress Bend and who doesn't.

Then Eleanor Waverly collapses after dessert. And Charisma's pastries are on the table.

Except Eleanor never touched sugar. Her private plate was prepared separately - Charisma's written instructions made that clear. And when Charisma examines the crumb structure of the brioche Eleanor ate, she knows immediately: the texture is wrong. Mixed too fast. Proofed too short. Someone altered that plate after it left Charisma's hands.

Now Charisma is navigating a world of charity boards, inheritance disputes, and social gatekeeping - where everyone smiles beautifully and someone in that room committed murder with a sugar-free glaze. The killer isn't the obvious suspect. It's the indispensable one. The woman who runs every room so smoothly that nobody thinks to watch her hands.

In Cypress Bend, people rarely throw you out directly. They simply rearrange the room until you understand you were never meant to stay.

Kneaded for Murder is a warm, witty, and emotionally satisfying culinary cozy mystery featuring:

• An amateur sleuth who solves crimes through baker logic - timing, texture, pressure, and the forensics of dough
• A richly inhabited small-town Florida setting with a cast of recurring characters readers will want to visit again and again
• A fair-play mystery with a fully planted clue chain - everything you need to solve it is on the page
• A slow-burn romance, found community, and a sourdough starter with serious attitude