Candymaker and reality TV star Bailey King is ready to get started on the next stage of her career—building a candy factory near her and her Amish grandmother Clara’s candy store in Harvest, Ohio. Clara is leery of all this ambition, but Bailey’s contact at Gourmet Television thinks that this is a great opportunity to film another reality show, so she has a small production crew tail Bailey while she preps for an August opening.

The trouble is that the work on her factory is at least two months behind. Her general contractor, Wade Farmer, keeps demanding more money from her before he’ll do any more work. He claims that supply costs keep rising, but there’s only so much money Bailey can keep giving him. Besides, she’s starting to get the feeling that his claims are less legitimate than extortionate. When she finally confronts him about this, her film crew is on hand to film the fallout, including her firing him and his subsequent promise that she’ll be sorry.

Bailey figures that these are just empty words said in anger and goes off with her crew to help with Harvest’s First Annual Blueberry Bash. But the conversation sticks with her enough that she decides to swing by the factory site later that night to make sure Wade hasn’t done anything underhanded. Her cousin Charlotte insists on accompanying her, so at least Bailey isn’t alone when they discover that Wade has been shot to death and left on the scaffolding inside.

Charlotte’s fiancé, Deputy Luke Little, is first on the scene and treats them both with gentle but firm professionalism. Since Bailey’s boyfriend, Aiden Brody, left the Holmes County Sheriff’s Department over a year ago to join the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Luke has overseen most of the county investigations into major crimes. So, it’s a surprise to everyone when Sheriff Jackson Marshall himself shows up to take over. Bailey suspects this might have something to do with Aiden quitting his job with the BCI in order to set up a private detective agency in Harvest. The insecure sheriff likely wants to remind people who the real lawman is in their town.

Unfortunately for his heavily Amish county, Sheriff Marshall’s preferred method of solving cases and enforcing the law involves rounding up the most likely Amish suspect and throwing him in jail. When he targets someone close to Bailey, she’ll have to put all her effort into figuring out who really killed her contractor and why.

I loved the plotting of this absorbing culinary cozy mystery, even as I thought it could have been paced out a little better over the course of the entire book. Bailey’s ongoing relationship with her extended Amish family is so fascinating, as was Charlotte’s less-than-ideal first meeting with her future in-laws. I also really liked the introduction of the rival candy store over in the neighboring town of Charm, and I hope to see more of it in the next book in the series.

There was only one recipe included here but it’s a real winner—and perfect for a book celebrating blueberry season!

Bailey’s Blueberry-and-Cream Fudge

Ingredients

1 cup fresh blueberries

½ tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

¼ cup of sugar

24 oz white chocolate chips

¼ stick of unsalted butter

14 oz of sweetened condensed milk

Instructions

1. Make the blueberry sauce. In a small saucepan add blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch over medium heat.

2. Stir continuously and smash the blueberries until you have a thick sauce like a puree.

3. Using a fine mesh strainer, push the puree through into a bowl and set aside.

4. Make the fudge cream. Over a double boiler, add the white chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter.

5. Stir continuously to blend and until all the chocolate is melted.

6. Line a 9×9 pan with parchment paper.

7. Pour ⅓ of the white chocolate mixture into the 9×9 pan.

8. Pour ⅓ of the blueberry sauce on top of the chocolate in the pan.

9. Using a knife, swirl the white chocolate and blueberry sauce together.

10. Repeat steps 7-9 two more times.

11. Place in the fridge to set for at least three hours.

12. Cut into pieces and enjoy. The fudge can last for a week in an airtight container.

This was the recipe that finally persuaded me to buy a real double boiler as well as an anti-fatigue kitchen mat for the hours I spend standing by the stove. The fudge-making process here is long but totally worth it. I’m even less of a fan of white chocolate fudge than I am of regular chocolate fudge, but this candy was an absolute delight. The fresh blueberry sauce swirled throughout is likely what sets it apart from similar sweets. I even saved the strained blueberry mixture to eat with bread and butter as a jam. While this recipe wasn’t as simple as my fudge from last week, it’s just as impressive and a nice twist on the usual chocolatey treat.

Next week, we head over to the West Coast to get in another chocolate fix while figuring out who could have killed a programming prankster. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: Give Fudge a Chance by Nancy Coco