Just Desserts

In the first of a delicious series, a full-figured Southern police detective untangles the murder mystery of a California politician's husband.
Det. Sgt. Savannah Reid is a long way from Georgia, but she'll go anywhere for good food and good friends. And policing the exclusive Southern California town of San Carmelita is as tasty as biscuits and gravy with spicy home fries. Until city councilwoman Beverly Winston's husband turns up dead—and an unprecedented media feeding frenzy sweeps the elite beach community like a tsunami.

The good news: Savannah is put in charge of the case. The bad: She's pressured to investigate every person of interest except the main one, Beverly herself. And when Savannah refuses to play political ball, she's summarily fired for "being overweight." But when another suspect hires her to uncover the truth, the detective turns up the heat on an unsavory mess of triple-dealing, infidelity, and betrayal that will rock San Carmelita's sun-soaked elegance to its core—and put a calculating murderer's target on Savannah's back.

Starring a "warm, winsome, and weight-bedeviled" heroine whose down-home savvy can solve the most sophisticated cases, this series is a delight for fans of Diane Mott Davidson's Goldy Schultz culinary mysteries and Miranda James's Southern Ladies Mysteries (Publishers Weekly).