Devil's Food Cake Murder

Hannah Swensen runs a bakery where the confections sell as fast as she can bake them, and her love life is going well too. Her friend Claire has just married Reverend Bob Knudson, but the two have had no time for a honeymoon.

The problem seems solved when Bob's childhood friend Matthew Walters arrives in town. Matthew is a Lutheran minister, like Bob, and he is on sabbatical, so he agrees to take over Bob's duties while the newlyweds go away.

Then Hannah finds Matthew face-down in a plate of Devil's Food Cake, shot once in the head. The plan that looked so convenient has ended in a killing, and Hannah sets out to work out who wanted a visiting minister dead.

This is a cozy mystery with an amateur sleuth and a baking backdrop. The tone is light and playful, with food and puns alongside the crime, and the murder itself is handled without graphic detail. Hannah investigates among friends and neighbors in her own community, so the case stays personal and the pace stays easy.