Bun For Your LifeBefore our town’s only murder, that I can remember at least, my life was rather ordinary. At times, downright boring. I’m Molly Tyler by the way. My best friend, Olivia Williams, and I own Bread and Batter Bakery in Destiny, N.Y. It’s a small upstate town on Destiny Lake surrounded by apple orchards and wineries. The kind of town where everyone knows everyone, which can be great, or can just grate on your nerves! My days were spent with Olivia baking and mingling with customers. My nights were spent . . . Well, since my divorce from funeral home owner, Brian Addair, my nights were mostly spent alone except for the random girls’ night out, dates that didn’t work, and my book club meetings with the Destiny Women’s Book Club. No need to yawn, I did warn you!

“What about the murder?” I hear all of you asking. The murder involved prominent apple orchard owner, Calista Danforth Brody. I still spent my days at the bakery after Calista’s murder, but since Olivia and I were suspects because a Bread and Batter Bakery t-shirt was found at the murder scene, my life got a little more interesting. I was personally invested in helping find Calista’s killer because I’d had a tiff with her the day of the Apple Harvest Fair, overheard by Destiny’s newest resident, Detective Sean Corsino, which in his chocolatey brown dreamy eyes, made me a little more suspicious than Olivia

Not only was Detective Corsino investigating Calista’s murder, he was also my new neighbor. We both rented apartments in a lovely Victorian house in town, owned by Dorothy Rose Brand. Dottie as we know her. Even though I won Detective Corsino at a bachelor auction designed to help fund the Destiny Library expansion, he didn’t seem very interested in romance with me. Nor was he interested in the facts I’d painstakingly gathered on the two main suspects in Calista’s murder—Trey Hamilton and Blake Ellsworth—which I was more than willing to share with him on our bachelor auction date.

My bet was on Trey Hamilton. A rival orchard owner and the one who found her dead. You see, Calista had recently found a new variety of apple growing on her land, and had named it the Calista Sugar Pink. Trey claimed it was land that had belonged to his ancestors that Calista’s family had stolen; therefore, the apple was his. What made this more bizarre was, until recently, Calista and Trey had been a romantic item. Since they were genetically disposed to dislike each other that was a mystery in itself! Now, about Blake. He dated Calista after her fallout with Trey (another “What’s up with that?”). Blake was a mechanic. Nothing wrong with that, but he and Calista didn’t run in the same circles. He told her he wanted to add to his collection of classic cars and asked for money. Calista turned him down. Was that a reason to kill her?

When someone starts leaving threatening notes for me, Detective Corsino asks me out for an actual date, psychic teenagers want to connect with Calista’s ghost at the bakery, someone hurts Dottie, and I almost end up as dead as Calista, my life becomes anything but ordinary. It’s a wonder I have time to bake at all!


You can read more about Molly in Bun For Your Life, the first book in the NEW “Bread and Batter” mystery series, published by Penguin/InterMix.

Bun For Your Life

Two bakery owners get mixed up with murder in the first adventure in the all-new Bread and Batter Mystery series. . .

As the co-owners of Bread and Batter Bakery in Destiny, New York, Molly Tyler and Olivia Williams have plenty on their plates. Molly is recently divorced and looking for a place to live, but they’re also both preparing for Destiny’s annual Apple Harvest Fair. The bakery has a booth where they’ll be selling not only delicious cupcakes and cider doughnuts, but also tote bags and t-shirts emblazoned with the bakery’s logo.

Tensions rise at the fair when local orchard owner Calista Danforth discovers organizers have assigned her usual booth to Bread and Batter. Although a heated argument ensues between her and Molly, the bakery manages to rake in lots of dough. But when Calista is found strangled to death with one of their t-shirts, Molly is named the prime suspect. Now these two friends must whip up some answers quickly before the future of their business crumbles. . .

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Meet the author
After having several short stories published, Karoline decided to tackle novel writing. She recently signed with Penguin/InterMix for her new “Bread and Batter” cozy mystery series. Bun For Your Life was released in November and Raisin The Dead will be out on 04.19.2016. Karoline lives in a small Connecticut town with her husband. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, spending time by the water, traveling, indulging in social media, accompanying above-mentioned husband to New York Yankees games, or doing anything that does not involve math.  Visit Karoline at www.karolinebarrett.com.