Clare Whitfield thought she had left Maple Hollow behind. After eleven years in Boston, she returns to her hometown with one simple goal: to help her aunt Dot recover and save the family bakery, Hollowbrook Bakery, from financial trouble. What she doesn't expect is to find herself caught between old memories, unfinished business, and a future she never planned to have. Then Harold Voss arrives. The wealthy and ambitious businessman wants to buy the bakery's building and transform the historic corner into part of a luxury hotel.
Clare refuses to sell, and their confrontation during the bakery's reopening quickly becomes the talk of the town. By the next morning, Harold Voss is dead. And Clare is the one who found him. With a public argument between them, a possible motive, and a box of her famous lemon pastries delivered to Harold shortly before his death, Clare suddenly finds herself at the center of a murder investigation.
Maple Hollow is quick to make up its mind about her guilt-but Clare knows she didn't kill him. The problem is, Harold had plenty of enemies. His much younger wife stands to inherit his fortune. His estranged son was recently cut out of the will. A local businesswoman had been threatened with foreclosure. And there are whispers that Harold knew secrets about someone powerful in town-secrets worth killing to keep hidden.
Determined to clear her name, Clare begins asking questions of her own. With the help of her fiercely loyal best friend Bree, the reluctant assistance of Detective Sam Okafor-her first love-and an unusually observant orange cat named Crumb, she starts piecing together a mystery that reaches far beyond the bakery. As old relationships resurface and new secrets come to light, Clare discovers that in a small town, appearances can be dangerously misleading.
Because everyone in Maple Hollow has a story. And someone is willing to kill to keep theirs hidden.
Clare Whitfield thought she had left Maple Hollow behind. After eleven years in Boston, she returns to her hometown with one simple goal: to help her aunt Dot recover and save the family bakery, Hollowbrook Bakery, from financial trouble. What she doesn't expect is to find herself caught between old memories, unfinished business, and a future she never planned to have. Then Harold Voss arrives. The wealthy and ambitious businessman wants to buy the bakery's building and transform the historic corner into part of a luxury hotel.
Clare refuses to sell, and their confrontation during the bakery's reopening quickly becomes the talk of the town. By the next morning, Harold Voss is dead. And Clare is the one who found him. With a public argument between them, a possible motive, and a box of her famous lemon pastries delivered to Harold shortly before his death, Clare suddenly finds herself at the center of a murder investigation.
Maple Hollow is quick to make up its mind about her guilt-but Clare knows she didn't kill him. The problem is, Harold had plenty of enemies. His much younger wife stands to inherit his fortune. His estranged son was recently cut out of the will. A local businesswoman had been threatened with foreclosure. And there are whispers that Harold knew secrets about someone powerful in town-secrets worth killing to keep hidden.
Determined to clear her name, Clare begins asking questions of her own. With the help of her fiercely loyal best friend Bree, the reluctant assistance of Detective Sam Okafor-her first love-and an unusually observant orange cat named Crumb, she starts piecing together a mystery that reaches far beyond the bakery. As old relationships resurface and new secrets come to light, Clare discovers that in a small town, appearances can be dangerously misleading.
Because everyone in Maple Hollow has a story. And someone is willing to kill to keep theirs hidden.
