Wedding Cake Killer

Wedding bells will be ringing in Weatherford, Texas, this Christmas when Phyllis Newsom opens up her home for her best friend’s wedding. And although the bride is wearing white, no one suspects that she’ll soon be wearing black…

After all the planning—and the cake tasting—the big day has arrived. Eve Turner, one of Phyllis’s boarders—and her best friend—is moving out and getting married to the affable Roy Porter. While she’s sad to see Eve go, Phyllis is more than happy to host the event in her house and to bake the bride and groom a delicious three-tiered coconut wedding cake. Even though a snowstorm in the forecast seems like a recipe for disaster, the day runs as smoothly as butter cream.

But the marriage doesn’t last long past the honeymoon. When Roy’s found dead at a Weatherford bed-and-breakfast, Eve’s the top suspect. Now Phyllis must find out who iced Roy before her friend finds herself behind bars…  

Includes recipes!

Praise for the Fresh-Baked Mysteries

“The whodunit is fun and the recipes [are] mouthwatering.”—
The Best Reviews

“A delicious whodunit.”—
Midwest Book Review

“Delightful, [with a] realistic small town vibe [and a] vibrant narrative…
A Peach of a Murder
runs the full range of emotions, so be prepared to laugh and cry with this one!”—
Romance Readers Connection  

A Friend in Need

“You’re going to have to find out who killed Roy, you know,” Carolyn said.

“Absolutely not,” Phyllis said. “You heard what Mike said. I think I’d be risking his career if I were to get mixed up in this investigation.”

“But you know good and well they think Eve did it, and once they get an idea like that in their heads, they stop looking for anybody else! You saw what happened in those other cases. If you hadn’t stepped in and uncovered the real killers, innocent people would have gone to jail . . . probably including me!”

“Those were isolated cases,” Phyllis insisted. “Most of the time, the police and the sheriff’s department are very good about finding out what really happened—”

“Are you prepared to risk Eve’s life on that?” Carolyn broke in. “Because that’s what you’ll be doing if you turn your back on this, you know. Do you honestly believe she could survive being sent to prison? Do you want to have to go to Huntsville to visit her and see her wasting away to nothing in there behind those iron bars?”

“I think they send most of the female convicts to Gatesville instead of Huntsville,” Sam said, then when Carolyn gave him an angry look hurried on, “Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because Eve’s not gonna be convicted of anything, and she’s not gonna be convicted of anything because she’s innocent. We all saw her with Roy the past couple of months. There’s no way she would ever hurt him, let alone kill him.”

Phyllis knew that was true. The conventional wisdom was that anybody was capable of anything under the right circumstances, but she didn’t believe that. Maybe it was true in most cases, but some things were so far beyond the pale that they simply were impossible.

She turned toward the phone, and Carolyn asked, “What are you going to do?”

MORE PRAISE FOR

THE FRESH-BAKED MYSTERIES

“Washburn has a refreshing way with words and knows how to tell an exciting story.”

—
Midwest Book Review

“Delightful, [with a] realistic small-town vibe [and a] vibrant narrative . . .
A Peach of a Murder
runs the full range of emotions, so be prepared to laugh and cry with this one!”

—Romance Readers Connection

Other Fresh-Baked Mysteries by Livia J. Washburn

The Pumpkin Muffin Murder

Killer Crab Cakes

The Christmas Cookie Killer

Murder by the Slice

A Peach of a Murder

The Gingerbread Bump-off

Wedding Cake Killer

A Fresh-Baked Mystery

LIVIA J. WASHBURN

AN OBSIDIAN MYSTERY

OBSIDIAN

Published by New American Library,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

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First published by Obsidian, an imprint of New American Library,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright © Livia Reasoner, 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

OBSIDIAN and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Washburn, L. J.

Wedding cake killer: a fresh-baked mystery/Livia Washburn.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-101-60882-1

1. Newson, Phyllis (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Baking—Fiction. 3. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 4. Weatherford (Tex.)—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3573.A787W43 2012

813'.54—dc23

2012021416

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

This book is dedicated to my husband, James Reasoner, and my two daughters, Shayna and Joanna, who have to sample even when the recipe turns out to be a real loser.