Monday, March 12, 2018

Playing with Bonbon Fire

Inheriting a chocolate shop when you have limited experience can be daunting. Charity Penn leaves her comfortable home in Wisconsin to take over the shop on the beachfront in Camellia Beach, South Carolina. In Playing with Bonbon Fire by Dorothy St. James, Penn is learning chocolate making first hand from her able partner Bertie Bays and still trying to fit in with her estranged family.

Besides learning how to make chocolates, Penn has been roped into planning the town's beach music festival with beach music idol Bixby Lewis as the star. No sooner has Bixby shown up in her shop when a fist-sized rock is hurled through the front window. Bixby claims he has a stalker who must have followed him to South Carolina.

Compounding her issues with broken glass and chocolate, two local beach music singers engage in some name calling and fisticuffs near the main stage. Bubba Crowley, president of the Camellia Beach business association and former lead singer of The Embers Stan Frasier decide to
renew old rivalries. Both were in the same local band in the sixties and seventies when Stan suddenly quit and formed his own group. Neither group became famous and Stan left the area. No one really knows why he left town or why he is back now.

When Penn discovers a body in a bonfire on the beach, she thinks she recognizes it as Bixby. The next day when Bixby walks into her shop, she is shocked and relieved. But who was murdered?

Old rivalries, driving ambition and a lost song lead Penn on a journey to discover who she really is.

A plot that keeps you guessing all the time and a very enjoyable read.

1 comment:

Jeanie Jackson said...

Great job outlining the key points of the story without sharing spoilers. If found that to be difficult with this book. One of my favorite things is the way Penn went from looking down on Althea to realizing her value as a friends. I wonder how her insurance feels about that window. It feels like there is lots more action in this one that there was in the first book.