TWO PARTS SUGAR, ONE PART MURDER

There are no uses of bad language or explicit content. There are even mentions of going to confession (although on a plane) and saying grace over breakfast!

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BOOK 1 SUMMARY

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Investors from Chicago decide to develop a town in Michigan called New Bison. So they build a fancy casino and plan to build more commercial shopping places. They also plan to buy out all the lakefront properties, replace the existing lakefront homes with high-rise condominiums, and set the rent everywhere to be insanely high.

 

Octavia (an elderly lady) stubbornly refused to sell her lakefront house, and she had concern knowing that the land that they were already building condos on used to be landfills and therefore wasn’t secure. The developers wanted to capitalize on the area anyways, so they destroyed any existing evidence that they could find about the land not being safe to build on. However, Octavia kept getting in their way by being nosy, asking questions, and looking for evidence that would stop their development plans from being fulfilled.

 

When it became time for mayor elections, the town (which is known for leaning to the conservative side) split the vote between two strong Republican candidates. The top Democrat candidate was too far left to have gotten a substantial following, so third-party Paul Rivers (who also owns the hardware store next to Octavia’s bakery named Baby Cakes Bakery) was able to sneak into office. Rivers was a smooth-talking man who told people whatever they wanted to hear, and he was all for the development plans. Paul was married twice: 

 

1. Majorie: A sweet lady whose goodness people thought would rub off on Rivers, but his rottenness ended up making her wilt until one day she left him.

 

2. Candace Hurtson: Daughter of Alma Hurtson (who is Octavia’s neighbor) and unofficial goddaughter of Octavia.

 

Weeks after Rivers married Candace, Candace realized that he didn’t really love her for her, and he was trying to use her to convince her mom and Octavia to sell their properties. So Candace and him were close to being on the verge of divorce. In addition to this attempted indirect influence, Bradley (“Brad”) Ellison is a money-loving boy in his twenties who works with the architects, realtors, and investors, so he directly tries to get Octavia and Alma to sell their homes.

 

When Octavia gets too nosy, Brad comes up with the idea of pushing Octavia off the stairs that lead from the back of her house to Lake Michigan. After all, this would look like an accident since Octavia was old, the stairs were steep, and the stairs can get slippery from mist from the lake. Brad reveals that Rivers would have been too much of a coward to push Octavia, but someone else carried out his plan (not him), killing Octavia.

 

Octavia’s will states that she left her house, bakery, and English Mastiff (“Baby”) all to her great-niece, Madison Montgomery. Right before Madison finds out this news, she gets stood-up by her fiance Elliott at her live-streamed wedding. When Octavia’s lawyer (Russell) informs Maddy about her inheritance, she agrees to fly out to New Bison for a fresh start. Russell also informs Maddy about the conditions of the will: Maddy must stay at the house and run the bakery for at least one year (instead of selling everything to buy more Jimmy Choo shoes), forcing her to use her brains and meet “real” people.

 

Before Maddy arrives, Alma regularly goes over to Octavia’s house to feed Baby. 

 

During Maddy’s first night in New Bison, she can’t sleep and decides to explore her new bakery. However, she gets spooked and grabs a knife while she walks. She places this knife down on one of the shelves before she leaves to go back to the house.

 

The next day, she meets the following people at the bakery:

 

• Leroy: A boy in his twenties who manages most of the baking (and cash-register duties).

 

• Hannah Portman: Octavia’s best friend (who was so close to her, they were like sisters). Hannah has early stages of dementia, so she continues to help out with baking when she’s up to it, and then lies down whenever she’s having one of her episodes.

 

• Michael Portman: Hannah’s grandson who took care of her. He had served four years in the army and now worked as an animal veterinarian.

 

“Michael Portman was a vet -- in every definition of the word: profession, experience, and military” (Book 1, 113).

 

• Garrett Kelley: A man who runs the bookstore across the street and was known for his long-standing, obvious crush on Octavia.

 

• Tyler: A man who owns an expensive, hand-knitted clothing store to the other side of Baby Cakes Bakery.

 

• Jackson Abernathy: A rude man who is an English Mastiff breeder. Octavia had suspected that Jackson was the one who abandoned Baby as a pup (before she nursed Baby back to health). Now that Baby is a strong, award-winning dog, Jackson tries to convince Maddy to allow him to milk as much sperm as he can out of Baby to capitalize as much as possible (to which Maddy refuses).

 

Maddy also refuses Brad’s offer at buying the house and Rivers’ offer at buying the bakery.

 

Later that night, Brad implies to Garrett Kelley that Rivers killed Octavia, so Garrett angrily calls up Rivers while he is out to dinner with Candace. They agree to meet at the bakery/ hardware store/ bookstore area. The bakery didn’t have an alarm system (which is supposed to not be needed in a safe town), so during their fight, River sets fire to the bakery (to burn any papers Octavia might have had about the condo constructions being unsafe), and Garrett uses the knife that Maddy had her fingerprints on to kill Rivers. Leroy notices the fire and drags Garrett (and Rivers’ body) out.

 

Maddy gets called into the police station for questioning, but the sheriff (April, a good friend of Octavia’s) knows that it would not make sense for Maddy to be the killer (since she hardly even knew Rivers). 

 

The next morning, April, Leroy, Hannah, and Tyler (“The Irregulars”) show up at Maddy’s house for their traditional meeting of discussing hard cases. After all, Octavia had a great mind from reading many detective books. During their discussion, they come up with the following conclusions:

 

• Leroy/ Hannah can’t be the killer because the knife that was used was a $1,200 eel knife. Why risk damaging the blade or handle on that expensive of a knife when a cheaper knife from their catering gigs (or even a cast iron pot) could have done the same trick?

 

• Tyler can’t be the killer because he agreed with Rivers’ plans for development (since he needs rich clients who can afford his expensive inventory).

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Once Garrett’s health improves, April and Maddy each visit him at the same time. Maddy asks if he remembers anything from the fire, but he claims to have “memory loss about the fire due to the trauma”. 

 

However, later Garrett texts Maddy that he couldn’t be completely honest with her in front of April, so he asks Maddy to meet him at Baby Cakes Bakery at midnight for him to tell her more about what happened. 

 

When Michael hears that Maddy is thinking of going to Baby Cakes Bakery by herself to meet someone who is still a murder suspect, he insists on going with her. However, when they show up, they see Garrett hanging from a tall beam (which is too high for him to have gotten to by himself without a ladder) and someone (who is later revealed to be Brad) begins shooting at them. Maddy passes out from being overwhelmed, and Michael carries her to his car (despite a bullet in one arm) and drives away to safety. It turns out that Brad killed Garrett and wrote a fake suicide note to clear up the investigation about the fire and Rivers’ murder. Brad wasn’t expecting Maddy and Michael to show up, so he improvised by pulling out his gun.

 

After the incident, Maddy overhears a conversation between Jackson, Brad, and a soft-voiced man plotting their next steps. Brad complains that even though Maddy is an “airhead”, she’s as stubborn as her nutty great-aunt and is having a hard time getting her to sell the house. The soft-voiced man then announces that he won’t miss next time.

 

In an attempt to get more information out of Brad (thinking that he’s just a pawn in a larger game and not much of a threat himself), Maddy agrees to go on another date with him (as he tries to flirt his way into getting her to sell the house). On the drive back to Maddy’s house, Brad senses that Maddy’s onto him and pulls out his gun on her and reveals what happened. To stall, Maddy lies that she came across papers in the house that Octavia had dug up that proved that the construction land used to be a landfill. Brad agrees to take her to the house so that he can get these papers before he kills Maddy, but at the house, Maddy pulls self-defense moves on him and Baby finishes him off. Brad shoots Baby in the process, but Michael later revives him (putting his vet skills to use). Maddy and Michael then reveal their feelings for one another and become a couple!