Killer Sweet Tooth
Gayle Trent
Gallery/Pocket, Oct 11 2011, $15.00
ISBN: 9781451600025
After her abusive husband tried to kill her, Daphne Martin divorced the SOB while he went to jail for shooting at her (Murder Takes the Cake); she returned to her hometown of Brea Ridge, Virginia where she opened up Daphne’s Delectable Cakes. Daphne has a boyfriend Brea Ridge Chronicle editor Ben Jacobs.
Ben cancels their date so Daphne invites her neighbor sexagenarian Myra Jenkins to come over for dessert. Unfortunately, Maya chips her tooth, but her dentist Dr. Bainsworth tells her to come to the office so he can fix it. Daphne and Myra arrive at Bainsworth’s office where they find the dentist dead. They call the police who name the pair as “persons’ of interest”. When Daphne arrives home, she is met by an Elvis impersonator. He belongs to EIEIO (Elvis Impersonator’s Evangelical Interdenominational Outreach) ; a group performing in town while attending a convention. Not wanting to be suspects, Maya and Daphne investigate the dentist’s murder; only to learn Bainsworth had plenty of enemies.The pair hopes to solve the case before EIEIO leaves town in order to clear their names.
The latest Daphne Martin mystery (see Dead Pan) is a Killer Sweet Tooth cozy as the police lack proof but the only suspects know they are under surveillance and the town thinks they are not the killers. This is a fun puzzler with an EIEIO member who may be the killer or perhaps the townsfolk with grudges against the late dentist. Maya and Daphne are different generations, but share common traits and each knows the other has their respective back. Gayle Trent has written a charming amateur sleuth.
Harriet Klausner
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