The Sourdough Wars — Julie Smith

Thanks to front-page coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle, everyone knows about the upcoming auction of the Martinelli family's renowned sourdough starter. No one anticipates the outcome: the auction will never take place, because handsome Peter Martinelli, owner of the recipe, is brutally murdered.

No more did attorney Rebecca Schwartz expect to find herself engaged in a hair-raising variety of unlawful and dangerous deeds, inspired by her reckless determination to find out whether Peter really died for a handful of dough. The more she sifts through the tangled relationships of the city's bread-making dynasties, the more Rebecca is certain that this is no simple affair. Love, hate, revenge, and pride are all ingredients in a dazzling mystery that only Julie Smith could have written--a puzzle that challenges the heart as much as it does the mind.