A friendly baking competition gone sour… is it just bad luck, or is it sweet sabotage?
Eliza Campbell enjoys every minute inside her new coffee shop, baking delectable treats and brewing delicious coffee drinks. As an empty-nester, she is sure she has designed the new life of her dreams with her tiny sidekick, the sweetest chihuahua named Pupcake, by her side at all times.
When the county fair’s baking competition is announced in the paper, Eliza envisions winning the grand prize: a feature in the renowned Sugar and Spice Dessert Magazine. With the support of her family, friends and loyal customers, she summons the courage to enter her most popular cupcakes in the contest. But as excitement fills the air, so does a cloud of unexpected mishaps.
Could it be mere coincidence, or is there a sinister force at play, determined to spoil Eliza’s chances?
Business is booming at the new Pupcake Corner Café… until the fragrant air of success is tainted by the foul scent of murder.
Get ready to sink your teeth into a deliciously suspenseful tale of murder, mystery, and fur-tastic sleuthing at the Pupcake Corner Café!
The charming town of Copeland is buzzing with excitement as Eliza and her adorable chihuahua, Pupcake, open their new coffee shop. But when a body is discovered on the premises, the duo must put down their baking tools and pick up their detective hats.
As the investigation heats up, Eliza and Pupcake must navigate through a maze of secrets and suspects to catch the killer before they strike again. But with the whole town on edge, can they trust anyone?
With Pupcake’s keen sense of smell and Eliza’s sharp wit, they make an unlikely but unstoppable team. And as they get closer to the truth, they realize that danger may lurk where they least expect it and the killer might just be right in front of their noses.
All Eliza Campbell wanted was a quiet vacation with her husband, her Chihuahua, and a chocolate workshop in the most charming town she’d ever seen. She found a dead body instead.
Eliza and Dean arrive in Willowbrook expecting long walks by the lake, lazy mornings on the cabin porch, and three days of hand-crafted truffles at the legendary Laurent Confectionery School. The kind of trip where the hardest decision is whether to have coffee before or after the sunrise. The kind of trip Eliza never takes because she’s too busy running Pupcake Corner Café back home.
For once, she’s letting someone else handle the espresso machine.
But when a Sunday morning walk with Pupcake leads to a clearing bordered by wild purple flowers and the body of the school’s famous owner, Vivienne Laurent, the vacation takes a turn no one planned for. No visible injuries. No obvious explanation. Just a deep blue chocolate box half-hidden in the grass and an expression on Vivienne’s face that Eliza can’t stop thinking about.
The sheriff calls it homicide. The town goes quiet. And the workshop carries on with five students, a grieving instructor, and a room full of secrets that won’t stay buried beneath the marble worktables.
Not everyone at the workshop is who they claim to be. Skills that don’t match the story. Questions no one wants to answer. A name from the past that keeps surfacing in all the wrong places. And a connection to Vivienne that someone has gone to great lengths to hide.
Eliza tells herself she’s just paying attention. That’s what she does. She notices things. She makes lists in her phone. She talks it through with Pupcake, who listens carefully and has never once been wrong about a person.
But paying attention has a way of becoming something more. And the closer Eliza gets to the truth, the more someone wants to make sure she stops looking.