Game of Scones — Mary Lee Ashford

As co-owner of Sugar and Spice Cookbooks, Sugar Calloway has seen simple confections bring friends together and spark fiery feuds. Except this time, the recipe truly is to die for. . .

After losing her job as food editor at a glossy magazine, Rosetta Sugarbaker Calloway -- aka “Sugar” to friends -- isn't sweet on accepting defeat and crawling back to her gossipy southern hometown. So when she has an opportunity to launch a community cookbook business with blue-ribbon baker Dixie Spicer in peaceful St. Ignatius, Iowa, she jumps at the chance to start over from scratch . . .

But as Sugar assembles recipes for the local centennial celebration, it's not long before she's up to her oven mitts in explosive threats, too-hot-to-handle scandals, and a dead body belonging to the moody matriarch of the town's first family. With suspicions running wild, Sugar and Spice must solve the murder before someone innocent takes the heat -- and the real culprit gathers enough ingredients to strike again . . .