When I stand outside the front door, I can’t help the pride washing over me. With a lot of help from my posse, the Girlz, and financial backing from Gran, my shop is finally open! No matter how many times I read the sign–Maple Lane Bakery–it gives me a thrill. Despite the hard work.

I’m in my gorgeous new kitchen every week day at 5am. Shocking, isn’t it? Especially when I don’t close the door until after 4pm most days. The thing is, bread and buns need to rest before you can put them in the oven, plus I have so many other things to bake before that first customer walks through the door, and I’m trying hard not to let Gran do more than she should.

My need for staff got lost along the way with the panic to open and start paying back my loan, and now I am seriously paying for it.

Added to that, I entered the Spring Festival pie competition, (my brain really hadn’t thought that through), and stumbled across the body of the Mayor. It would have been horrendous at any time, but Denise was a friend.

Now I’ve got someone sending threatening letters. They want me out of town, and I’m not sure why. Although, there are some clues. Perhaps it’s one of the jealous girlfriends, worried I’ll get together with my ex, the handsome sheriff? Maybe, someone who hates my cakes? Or, someone who hates me?

I want to protect my friends and keep them out of this, but they got angry and insist they’re in this with me. It’s scary stuff, but a relief knowing they’ve got my back. I should mention that so does Ethan Tanner when I let him. Yes, he’s that ex I was telling you about, and no, we are definitely not an item.

Does he have to be so darn handsome?

Giveaway: What is your favorite pie filling? Leave a comment below for your chance to win a kindle copy of Apple Pie and Arsenic. The giveaway will end July 3, 2018. Good luck everyone!

You can read more about Maddie in Apple Pie and Arsenic, the first book in the “Maple Lane” mystery series.

Maddison Flynn thought that opening her bakery and winning the top prize for her apple pie at the Spring Festival would be the most excitement in her day.

She wasn’t expecting to find the dead body of her good friend beside her car, or to be accused of murder.

Things like that just don’t happen in small towns like Maple Falls.

With nowhere else to turn, Maddie enlists the help of her old flame Sheriff Ethan Tanner, as well as her irrepressible Gran, to find the murderer before Maddie’s put in jail or there’s another death on their hands.

Danger threatens at every turn, and when Maddie ends up on her own, scared and out of her depth, it seems that even an award-winning baker isn’t safe from Maple Falls’ first serial killer.

The Maple Lane Mysteries are light cozy mysteries featuring a quirky cat-loving bakery owner who discovers she’s a talented amateur sleuth.

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Meet the author
C. A. Phipps is a USA Today best-selling romance author from beautiful Auckland, New Zealand.

Cheryl loves a good cozy mystery filled with feisty heroines, wonderful small towns with heart-warming tales of strong family ties, mixed in with a little romance and humor.

She lives in a quiet suburb of New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, with her wonderful husband, who she married the moment she left school (yes, they were high school sweethearts).

A lover of animals, with a few children, and even more grandchildren, who keep her young, she loves family times, dining out, and travel, in that order.

Visit Cheryl at caphipps.com.

All comments are welcomed.