Cinnamon Rolls & Suspects

Spring has returned to Maplewood, bringing open windows, flower-filled sidewalks, and the cinnamon rolls Lila has been testing since Christmas. The Maplewood Pie Shop is serving breakfast for the town’s Spring Home & Garden Tour while Main Street fills with tulips, hanging baskets, and historic houses opening their doors.

Then Helen Fairchild is found dead in the glasshouse of one of Maplewood’s featured homes. As chair of the Preservation Society, Helen had been tracking a series of small disappearances: antique latches, brass ornaments, and original fixtures replaced by convincing copies. Her private access list quickly becomes Maplewood’s unofficial list of suspects.

When a missing brass finial turns up in one of Grace Holloway’s returned flower crates, the town finds an easy explanation. Emily does not. A restoration contractor has a neat alibi, June Parker’s key log has gaps, and an antiques dealer knows more than she first admits.

The clue Emily cannot dismiss is a printed Pie Shop receipt stamped with a time she knows cannot be right. For forty-five minutes, there was no receipt paper in the register at all. With Lila’s dry humor, Mrs. Collins’s inconvenient memory, Grace’s quiet determination, and Tom Bennett’s careful verification close at hand, Emily follows a trail of access lists, planted evidence, and polished springtime stories through Maplewood’s open doors.