The Peppermint Mocha Murder

Chocolate whisperer Hayden Mundy Moore visits New England in the hopes of enjoying a traditional Christmas. Her financial advisor Travis Turner invites the California girl to his hometown for the holidays.  In The Peppermint Mocha Murder by Collette London, Hayden soon discovers trouble seems to follow her.

Hayden is excited because she didn't have a traditional upbringing and is looking forward to the Currier and Ives New England setting she imagines Sproutes, Massachusetts, to be.  She and Travis are in town for the highly touted opening of Albany Sullivan's lightly fictionalized memoir, but when she finds a woman looking remarkably like Albany face down in the punch bowl at the B&B where she is staying, apparently dead, she is queasy about their visit.

When it turns out not to be Albany, but Melissa Balthasar, one of the producers of Christmas in Crazytown, Albany's musical, Hayden is relieved it wasn't Travis' friend, but concerned about the actual death. The police believe Melissa had had too much to drink and accidentally pitched forward into the punch bowl, but after a couple of other incidents, Hayden is not

so sure. What she also discovers is that Albany isn't the only tall, lanky brunette in the B&B and maybe Melissa died by mistake.

This plunges her into an investigation that includes her best friend's childhood friends. What she discovers might be damaging to her relationship with Travis and maybe even her own life.

Hayden is a fun character and a chocolate whisperer is a new one on me. I'd love to be one, although I'm still not sure what it is.

When Hayden is stressed, she bakes. Among her chocolate treasures are chocolate-peppermint truffles, peppermint mocha fudge and cookies with peppermint frosting. (Recipes included.) 

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