by Sandra Murphy
& Amanda Flower

This week we have a review of Toxic Toffee, the latest Amish Candy Shop Mystery by Amanda Flower, along with a guest post about bunnies. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of Toxic Toffee, and a link to purchase it from Amazon, and an indie bookstore where a portion of the sale goes to help support KRL.

Toxic Toffee: An Amish Candy Shop Mystery by Amanda Flower
Review by Sandra Murphy

Bailey King has the best of both worlds. In New York, she’s a master chocolatier with her own cable television show. Back home in Ohio, she’s able to work at Swissmen Sweets, her grandmother’s Amish chocolate shop. Bailey’s father left the Amish community before being baptized, so Bailey wasn’t raised Amish.

It’s Easter time and under the guidance (read iron fist) of Margot Rawlings, the town square is featuring all things bunny. A local breeder has about thirty bunnies in a pen, poses for photos with his pet rabbit, Puff. Margo coerces Bailey into creating an eight-foot-tall rabbit molded from crispy cereal, fondant, chocolate, and toffee. By the way, can she have it done in two days? And donate her time and materials.

Bailey’s dating Sheriff Deputy Aiden Brody, or at least trying to. It seems any plans they make are easily derailed. There’s no pressure except from Aiden’s mother, Judith, who thinks the pair are getting married. Bailey would just like to have an official date first. Dodging Judith’s wedding plans adds comedy to the situation.

When Bailey is introduced to Stephen, the bunny breeder, she finds him to be a kind man. Before she can learn more about him and his rabbits, he drops dead at her feet. What’s assumed to have been a heart attack, turns out to be murder.

Bailey barely has a minute to breathe. An unexpected request that she act as foster care for Puff, only adds to the pressure to sell lots of candy, keep Margot and Judith (and Judith’s pet pig, Jethro) under control, broker peace between a tiny kitten and an extra-large rabbit, and solve the murder without disrupting the Easter celebration. Jethro is always my favorite part of this series. He’s a tiny pig, polka-dotted and Judith dresses to match his coloring. In typical small town fashion, no one bats an eye at a woman with a pig working at the church and around town.

In addition to the Amish Candy shop books, Flower writes the Magical Bookshop series, Andi Boggs books for kids, Living History Museum mysteries, and a new series, the Amish Matchmaking tales. The matchmaker is introduced in this book, and I can’t wait to read Matchmaking Can Be Murder, due out in December, available for pre-order now.

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis Missouri. She writes about eco-friendly topics, pets and wildlife for magazines and reviews mysteries and thrillers for KRL. A collection of her short stories, published by Untreed Reads, From Hay to Eternity: Ten Tales of Crime and Deception can be found at all the usual outlets. Each one is a little weird and all have a twist you won’t see coming.

So Many Bunnies
By Amanda Flower

One of my favorite things about writing about the Amish is researching the culture and learning about the places they live. I have the good fortune to live only an hour away from Holmes County, Ohio, where the Amish Candy Shop Mysteries are set, so I can go there as often as I like. I’ve been there in every season, even the dead of winter when the Amish men trade their black felt hats for black stocking caps and the women wear capes over their plain dresses.

Amanda Flower

The next time I saw rabbits was far away from Amish Country. I went to Ireland in July and saw a rabbit almost every morning. It was one of the giant Irish hares. Any time, I drove to the countryside, there they were. And then when I returned home, I went to my own county fair they had a whole barn full of bunnies that were being judge. For me, it’s been the summer of rabbits. It seems everywhere I look I see one. I’m taking that as a good sign.

To enter to win a copy of Toxic Toffee, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “toffee,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen August 31, 2019. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address (so if you win we can get the book sent right out to you), and if via comment please include your email address. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Be sure to check out our new mystery podcast too with mystery short stories, and first chapters read by local actors. A new episode goes up this week!

Use this link to purchase the book & a portion goes to help support KRL & indie bookstore Mysterious Galaxy:

Toxic Toffee (An Amish Candy Shop Mystery #4)

You can also use this link to purchase the book on Amazon. If you have ad blocker on you may not see the link:

Amanda Flower, a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over twenty-five cozy mystery novels, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words. In addition to being an author, Amanda is a former librarian with fifteen years experience in Northeast Ohio. Toxic Toffee is her latest release.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases using those links. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.