Cozy Mystery #3

 A Cup of Flour, A Pinch of Death by Valerie Burns 

This cozy mystery series is continuing to be enjoyable. We have multiple people from Maddy's past show up starting with a frenemy who is truly more of an enemy but in all truthfulness she did her a favor when she stole her fiance. And now she's here to try to make Maddy look bad, except it's not working because Maddy likes her new life. But, she does hit all of her insecurities when she posts a photo with Michael. Then, after arguing with Maddy, she turns up dead and Maddy is the only suspect. We also find out Elliot, the ex-fiance, is here with his new girlfriend (another frenemy). And, we have an art guy who has a package for Maddy from her aunt. But, he is killed before he can give it to her; and Maddy and her father are the ones that find the body. Well, turns out Elliot's new girl doesn't actually like him, she was really in love with the art guy; so we can cross her off of the suspect list. Michael got to punch Elliot, which was satisfying, but unfortunately for us, Elliot wasn't the killer; turns out he broke up with Maddy and dated her friend because said friend told him to do it to humiliate her and in hopes she would come crawling back to him and he was pissed when she didn't (that's what led to him getting punched). The Admiral is in this book a lot, and he has a bit of a flirtation going with Carson Law, the milliner and namesake of the fanciest hotel in town. We also find out that Aunt Octavia didn't use Chris Russell as her attorney, she used his father, but he died right before she did; luckily she had her will and all of her other documents iron clad and Chris couldn't mess with them. When Maddy was cast as a suspect he wanted her to sign a document saying he could make decisions for her should she be arrested, but she wouldn't sign them without reading them, which pissed him off but was smart on her part. Turns out I was right and he was super shady. He was the mastermind behind all of the bad things that have been happening in the books and he killed Octavia. But, now it doesn't matter. Maddy ends up in the hospital and when she waked up she proposes to Michael and he says no because of all of the medication she's on. Also, because he was going to propose to her, he even had a ring. She says yes.  I love a cozy mystery; it's a fun, fast read, and such a good palate cleanser. It gives you a mystery but is low stakes.