Beignets, Brides and Bodies by J. R. Ripley

Maggie is working on her new business and thinking up ways to bring more people into her store.  It's hard when there is another business right across the street that offers coffee and muffins.  She offer beignets but they are not popular in Arizona yet.  More people are discovering them and her shop but not enough yet.  Then Clive from next door comes over and asks for a favor.  Will she give him a ride to the cake shop downtown to deliver some fabric swatches for a wedding.  She borrows her brother's pickup without telling him.  That's a bad move...

Severn House Publishers and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published tomorrow.

She takes Clive downtown and when he comes out he's panicked!  He found a dead body at the foot of the stairs.  Maggie calls it in.  Unfortunately, Clive says enough to get taken in.  Maggie knows he didn't kill her, but that doesn't matter.  Then they impound her brother's pickup.  What else could go wrong?  Her brother came to pick up her up and her mother knows all about it.  Oh my...

Trying to determine who the killer is becomes important after Clive is jailed.  Maggie tries to work on the case but not by doing anything legally.  She comes up with all kinds of hairball ideas and gets her friends to help her.  The dead woman's brother comes to town the next day but he was in a neighboring town for two nights before he arrived.  Did he do it?

She finds lots of dirt but nothing that says who the killer is.  When she finds out, it's almost too late for her. There's more than one killer.

I like this cozy mystery and am amused by the relationship between Maggie and the cop.  The cop has a girlfriend but that doesn't stop her fantasies.  And, in the meantime, she has a journalist trying to date her.  It will be interesting to see where her romantic interests go.  In the meantime, have a beignet (a square piece of dough, fried and covered with powdered sugar).