The Candy Cane Caper by Josie S. Kilpack -- Review

About the Book

This Christmas, Sadie Hoffmiller Cunningham is making a list and checking it twice. For the first time since she and Pete married five years ago, their combined families are gathering for the holidays in Fort Collins, Colorado, for a party that would make Santa and Mrs. Claus proud.

She just has to bake the famous Cunningham Candy Cane Cake, make sure the looming snowstorm doesn't derail everyone's travel plans, and oh, yes, solve one teensy-tiny mystery before the big day.

At ninety-four and nearly blind, Mary, Sadie's friend and neighbor, knows this will be her last Christmas. When Sadie learns that someone has stolen antique Christmas ornaments from Mary's tree, she vows to find the thief, no matter what. The ornaments had been appraised at more than $40,000, but they were worth even more to Mary, who had intended to bequeath them to her great-granddaughter, Joy, as a final gift.

With Pete in Arizona wrapping up a case of his own, it's up to Sadie to question the residents of Nicholas House, where Mary lives, and deduce who had the means and the motive to steal heirloom ornaments during what should be the most wonderful time of the year.

When stories of other thefts surface, Sadie feels like she's creating a "naughty" list that could rival Santa's. Identifying the thief, recovering the ornaments, and restoring them to Mary's tree in time will take a Christmas miracle—and maybe a few extra-special cookies.

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About the Author

Josi S. Kilpack hated to read until her mother handed her a copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond when she was 13. From that day forward, she read everything she could get her hands on and credits her writing “education” to the many novels she has “studied” since then. She began writing her first novel in 1998 and has written twenty-five novels, one cookbook, and been part of multiple collaborations since then. She is a four-time Whitney Award winner and Best of State winner in Fiction.  Josi currently lives in Willard, Utah, with her husband and children.

When Kensington Press picked up her first national women's fiction novel, As Wide as the Sky, Josi was in need of a pen name to differentiate between her other genres. For years, Josi has bee called Jessica Pack by people who hear her name but don't know her, it made her new pen name easy to choose.

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Review

Josi S Kilpack’s The Candy Cane Caper is a splendid combination of holiday read and cozy mystery that readers will delight in from cover to cover, especially with the return of Sadie.  This story is about finding some holiday ornaments that have disappeared.  They belong to an older lady that is about to pass away and her friends and family want to find them before she realizes they are missing so they can make this the best Christmas for her before she passes.  This story has a huge theme of being with the ones you hold dear, both friends and family, during the holiday season.  Readers will be thrilled with this exciting Sadie cozy mystery.
 
Series: A Culinary Mystery
Genre: contemporary, cozy mystery, holiday
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Publication date: October 1, 2019
Number of pages: 320
 
Other books in the series:
1-Lemon Tart
2-English Trufle
3-Devil’s Food Cake
4-Key Lime Pie
5-Blackberry Crumble
6-Pumpkin Roll
7-Banana Split
8-Tres Leches Cupcakes
9-Baked Alaska
10-Rocky Road
11-Fortune Cookie
12-Wedding Cake
 
A review copy of this book was provided by the author via her launch team.  A review was not required and all views and opinions expressed are my own.