Five-Ingredient Mysteries

The Codger Cook and his granddaughter are at it again in Maya Corrigan's Final Fondue. It's the Tricentennial in Bayport, Maryland, and every room in town is booked including rooms at granddad's house. Val has been shipped off to stay with her cousin Monique, but remains at he house for part of the evening to help prepare appetizers for the guests.

A wedding party is on a scouting mission for venues in Bayport and they are the house guests. While they wait for the bride to arrive at the house, an icy silences surrounds them. Once the bride arrives, they head to the festival and Val sets out on her own. To her surprise she encounters the irate chef who caused her to lose her job in New York. After a bitter argument, Val decides to return home frightened by the angry encounter.

While Val is cleaning up after the guests, she takes the trash outside and stumbles on the body of one of the guests - strangled with a rope still around her neck. Who would have killed the bubbly bridesmaid? Was it a case of mistaken

identity?

When the bride is attacked in the Festival Corn Maze, Val puzzles out that attack and who might have been behind it. Both Sarina and Noah were nearby. Do they hold a grudge for an experience on a blind date 10 years again?

In the meantime Val agonizes about accepting the job offer to return to her PR job in New York. On tap for this momentous decision is Val's mother and her former fiance, Tony. Tony is in town either for a reconciliation or closure, Val is not sure, but she does know she doesn't want any part of it.

Mysterious texts and other threats, Val pieces together the back story of the group and discovers the shocking truth about them.

The first in the Five-Ingredient Mystery series is By Cook or By Crook.