Leila Khoury’s life has certainly changed considerably–and for the better–since returning home to Sugar Ridge to take over her family’s maple syrup farm following her father’s untimely death. Since apprehending her father’s murderer and falling in love, she’s felt more and more comfortable living at home again in Vermont with her mother, Selma; and their new cat, Toast. But now, her boyfriend, the widowed Noah Rivers, is talking about moving in together. While Leila is certainly looking forward to forming a family with him and his delightful 6-year-old daughter, Emma, she’s worried about the impact of their status change on the latter. Not being able to have kids herself, she desperately wants Emma to understand that she means just as much to her as any child she might have been able to bear herself.

As part of these efforts, she makes sure that Emma is fully involved in the Thanksgiving festivities Leila has thought up for the Sappy Endings Farm. The highlight of the celebration is the pie contest, which attracts a surprisingly large number of entries. While the official judges are Leila, Selma, and Noah, a pushy neighbor named Margaret Middleton volunteers herself to help them out. When Margaret begins convulsing after tasting one of the pies, everyone is shocked–everyone except the baker who poisoned the dessert, that is.

Unfortunately for Leila, the poisoner has no interest in revealing themselves. Sappy Endings’ profits take the hit instead, as people start staying away from the farm and its products even though they had nothing to do with baking the desserts. Leila can’t help but worry that someone deliberately poisoned the pie in order to wreck her family business. But after Leila herself is nearly murdered, she and her friends will have to race against time in order to find and stop a reckless killer before anybody else gets hurt.

There were a lot of twists and oodles of character development in this engrossing third installment of the Maple Syrup Mysteries. I did not care for Leila’s attitude in the first book of the series but have really enjoyed watching both her and Selma mellow and mature as they deal with their own prickly relationship. The narrative was genuinely suspenseful, with a convincing array of suspects–some of whom were far more deranged than others. Perhaps most of all, I really appreciated Leila’s relationship with Emma and her commitment to listening to and understanding the little girl.

As with the other books in the series, there is a wonderful selection of recipes at the end of this volume. Fittingly, the recipes here are all for various delicious pies. I decided to try out this one:

Maple Cream Pie

Ingredients

9-inch pre-baked graham cracker crust, cooled

¼ cup and 1 tablespoon cornstarch

½ teaspoon salt

1 ¾ cups whole milk, divided

¾ cup pure maple syrup

2 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 ¼ cups heavy whipping cream, divided

3 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar, divided

Instructions

Combine the cornstarch and salt in a heavy saucepan. Whisk in ½ cup cold milk until the mixture is smooth. Gradually whisk in the remaining milk and ¾ cup maple syrup. Cook over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Stir frequently starting out but as the mixture heats, stir constantly to keep from scorching. Reduce the heat to low once it begins bubbling and cook an additional 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

In a separate small bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Whisking constantly, add a ¼ cup of the hot milk mixture to the egg yolks. Slowly and whisking constantly, add the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan containing the milk mixture. Over medium-low heat, cook the mixture until it begins to bubble, then cook an additional 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter until melted. Cool to room temperature without stirring.

Once filling has cooled, add 1 cup heavy cream to a chilled, medium-sized bowl. Whip on high until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to low and slowly add 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar. Increase speed and beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold 1 cup of the whipped cream into the fully cooled filling.

Pour filling into the cooled pie crust. Spread the remaining whipped cream over the pie filling. Refrigerate overnight.

Just before serving, whip the remaining ¼ cup heavy cream on high speed until soft peaks form. Reduce speed and add 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar, then increase speed and beat until stiff peaks form. Using a piping bag and large star tip, pipe the whipped cream around the edges of the pie to decorate.

This was so delicious, even if I accidentally used the entire egg instead of just the yolks (oops). That was likely part of the reason why the filling didn’t really set, though there were certainly no complaints from anyone who tasted the pie. I brought it over to an impromptu neighborhood Halloween gathering, and everyone there enjoyed it–even if it was a bit runny. The flavors otherwise were terrific. It didn’t even need a second round of whipped cream on top, which I’ll admit to skipping because I was afraid the pie filling would overflow the pan entirely. My neighbors did have fun guessing what pattern the whipped cream I put on the night before was supposed to be though. Guesses included a ghost, a bat, and a ghost bat–all of which I enthusiastically said yes to.

Next week, we travel to the Midwest for another food festival and whip up a sweet treat while investigating the death of a politician’s wife. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: Sleep in Heavenly Pizza by Mindy Quigley