Marshmallow Malice: An Amish Candy Shop Mystery by Amanda Flower

Image provided by Kensington Books.

           Well, I must say Juliet has toned down her relationship meddling now she has her own relationship to concentrate on.  This was my wish with the last book.  How long this behavior will last, though, I have no idea.      

                Juliet Brody is about to get married.  She has been crazy about Reverend Simon Brook for quite some time.  Now they are going to be husband and wife.

                Candy maker Bailey King is the maid of honor.  She’s dating Juliet’s son, Sheriff’s Deputy Aiden Brody.  Juliet loves Bailey and would be thrilled for Bailey to become her daughter-in-law.  In fact, if she wasn’t getting married herself, Juliet would probably be doing her usual habit of harassing Bailey about marrying her son every day as she usually does.

                But, today is Juliet and Reverend Brook’s day.  They are to be married and live happily ever after.

                At least that is the hope.  The wedding day doesn’t exactly go as planned.  Or even smoothly.

                First, some of Juliet’s hair is burned off.  Then, during the ceremony, an irate woman interrupts the proceedings.  After that, at the reception, Juliet’s pet pig, Jethro, ruins the cake.

                Despite all this, Juliet ends the night as a happily married woman.

                The same cannot be said for the woman who barged in on the wedding.

              Leeza Chupp is found the next morning on the church steps, dead.  Bailey finds her when she goes to check if everything was cleaned up after the wedding.  Leeza’s death is a mystery.  One Bailey decides to become involved with solving when she discovers Leeza was a former member of the Amish community.  The police do not have a good reputation with the local Amish, but Bailey does.  Or at least she has a better one than the police do.  The Amish community members will be more likely to talk to Bailey than anyone wearing a uniform.  Including Aiden.

                With her best friend Cass’s help, Bailey looks into who Leeza was and who could have wanted her dead.  This is a task Bailey has done before, but for some reason Aiden is more anxious this time around.  That’s because the police are also investigating moonshiners illegally working in the woods.  It’s a dangerous situation.  One Aidan wants Bailey to steer clear of.  If only he’d had the same conversation with Jethro.     

                Oh, that pig.  He’s always getting someone into trouble.  In fact, he’s part of the reason Juliet got her hair burned off.  It’s a wonder how he escapes from all the trouble he creates.

                Probably the reason Jethro escapes from so much trouble is because of Juliet.  She looks over and forgives everything he does, no matter how bad.  That behavior hasn’t changed.  The marriage pressure has, which is good to see.

                While Juliet’s behavior towards Bailey was improved, Aiden’s was a little off.  He was often short with Bailey.  Now, this could be excused as being caused by the stress of searching for the moonshiners, but it still wasn’t nice.  Another reason could have been because of the secret he was keeping from Bailey.

                A long time ago, Aiden and his then-girlfriend made a pact.  If they weren’t married by a certain age, they would marry each other.  This is something Aiden has not told Bailey about.  Now the girlfriend is in town wanting Aiden to keep his promise.  And enjoying tormenting Bailey about it as well.

                With the personal side of Bailey’s life being a little uncertain, it is a good thing Cass is around to lighten things up and stand by Bailey when she needs it.  Cass is always a lot of fun to read about.  As are the ever-growing number of animals in the candy shop.

                First it was the cat.  Then there was a rabbit.  Now Jethro the pig has been added to the list of candy shop animals.  It is fascinating how they all get along.  I wonder what animal is going to join the group next.