Pancakes and More

In Maddie Day's new series Flipped For Murder we meet Robbie Jordan, owner of Pans 'N Pancakes. She is newly returned to her hometown in southern Indiana from years spent in California and has purchased a rundown country store and turned it into a popular cafe and kitchen shop.

Running the cafe is not all it's cracked up to be as she encounters her angry competitor from an adjacent town, the flamboyant mayor of South Lick, her late mother's former boyfriend and a dead body. Mayor's assistant and all around thorn in the side of the town, Stella Rogers, is found murdered in her home with one of Robbie's cheesy biscuits crammed in her mouth. Before she knows it, Robbie is a "person of interest" in the murder.

Stella knew everyone's secrets and it is up to Robbie to find out who killed her so she can clear herself. In the meantime, Robbie pieces together some threads from her late mother's life in South Lick, Indiana before she moved to California. What she finds surprises her.

I enjoyed this book and the characters. Robbie is down-to-earth and seems to enjoy waking up at 5:30 am to bake and prepare for her customers. I'm not sure I could be that sunny at that time of the day. Her breakfasts have me craving omelets and biscuits, too. Her desserts, baked by budding opera star Phil, are decadent and craveworthy. The plot advances with ease and without too much heroine in peril, which I dislike as a plot technique.

The next book in the series is Grilled for Murder and I am already reading it.