Playing with Bonbon Fire: A Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery

St. James’s so-so sequel to 2017’s Asking for Truffle finds Charity Penn running the Chocolate Box in Camellia Beach, S.C., a store she inherited from her late maternal grandmother, Mabel Maybank, and trying to learn more about her wealthy Maybank relatives. She’s also involved in putting together the inaugural Summer Solstice Beach Music Festival. Headlining the fest is the reunion of local band the Embers, but the star attraction is music great Bixby Lewis. When a burned body is discovered by a beach bonfire, Penn fears it’s Bixby, but the victim turns out to be Stan Frasier, the disaffected former lead singer for the Embers who had a hit with another group in the 1970s. Penn seizes the chance to play amateur sleuth, but she must contend with police chief Hank Byrd, who warns her not to investigate or interfere. Too much is going on in this farrago of a mystery, but cozy fans will still have fun. [em]Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. (Mar.) [/em]