Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Cupcakes Can be Deadly

Librarian Juanita Willis is known for her inquisitiveness in her hometown of Wyndham, Oklahoma. In Marion Moore Hill's Cook the Books, Juanita tries to prove Tracy Marie Riek is innocent of killing her husband.

In addition to being a librarian, Juanita is a tutor for an adult literacy program and Tracy Marie is one of her students.When Tracy's husband dies from eating a poisoned cupcake, suspicion falls on his wife. But Juanita knows Tracy Marie isn't the killer and sets out to determine who hated Bobby Riek that much and what nefarious deals he was involved in.

There are plenty of suspects at the D-I-Y big box hardware store where Bobby worked. With bill collectors hammering at his door, Bobby seemed to need some scheme to find extra money. When money from a fund meant to help the family of a co-worker goes missing, Bobby is suspected of being the culprit. Tracy Marie doesn't believe he would steal the money, but strangely enough the money is missing. 

There are several bookkeepers involved with the money including a childhood friend of Tracy Marie's, a former employee and plenty of others. Juanita puts herself in danger during an epic flood in the town to find the answer.

This was an interesting book except for one little quirk the author used. She referred to Tracy Marie as "the student, the learner or the tutee" instead of by her name or a feminine pronoun. That drove me crazy, but I still enjoyed the book.

To read other books in the Scrappy Librarian series, click here.

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