Sage Caplin is newly engaged and ready for the next big step in her professional life: opening an honest-to-goodness cafe in the newly constructed Button Building. Back when she first opened her coffee cart, she had only dreamed of owning her own cafe. Now, with two carts, a roastery, and distribution deals under her belt, she feels like she’s genuinely making all her dreams come true via years of hard work and thoughtful community building.

Not everyone is as thrilled at her success, however. Bianca Moore of the neighboring Burrito Bandits is particularly mean to Sage, having been a thorn in her side since they first shared space in a food cart pod. That said, Bianca gets along with very few people, as most of their fellow food-cart-turned-brick-and-mortar restaurant owners can attest. They’ve all been in the trenches with Sage and Bianca and definitely prefer the laid back Sage’s company to Bianca’s unnecessarily combative ways.

When Bianca has a seizure and falls unconscious while being interviewed by a podcaster on the Button Building’s opening day, everyone assumes that her collapse was the result of either a preexisting health condition or some sort of accident. Sage has been around enough murders, however, to suspect the worst. When the police confirm that Bianca was deliberately poisoned, all eyes turn to the handful of people who could have possibly poisoned her drink, including Sage herself.

Sage knows she didn’t do it, but she’s starting to feel less sure about at least one of her new employees. But what could possibly have been the motive for anyone wanting to kill Bianca? Sure, she was a pain, but that’s hardly a reason for murder. Things get more complicated when Rose Trevino–the young podcaster who was interviewing Bianca when she collapsed–publicly declares that she’s going to figure out whodunit. Sage is reluctantly drawn into helping her out, especially when it looks like Rose could be the killer’s next target.

The twists in the final third of this book had me breathless, as Sage not only solves the crime but learns a lot more about her family than expected. Rose had originally come to Portland to do a podcast on Sage’s estranged grifter mother, who’d recently been reported dead in a car accident in South America. The connections Rose uncovers help Sage make better sense of her own childhood as well as the complex feelings she still harbors around what her mother put her through. I was really impressed by Emmeline Duncan’s ongoing compassionate lens, especially when it comes to understanding, but never excusing, why some people just aren’t very kind or good to others.

There were seven recipes for food and drinks mentioned in the story included here, and I decided to try out this one:

Tomato-Orange-Coconut Milk Soup

Ingredients

Canola oil

1 onion, diced

1 jalapeno, diced

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon voodoo spice mix

1 cup orange juice

2 crushed garlic cubes (optional)

1 14-ounce of canned coconut milk (Note: you want a can of real coconut milk.)

Instructions

Add canola or other oil to your favorite soup making pot; Dutch ovens work great here! Put over medium heat, and once the oil is warm, add the onion and cook it until it’s starting to get translucent. Add the jalapenos and cook for a minute, then add the crushed tomatoes and spices. Bring the heat up slightly until the tomatoes come to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and let it simmer for twenty minutes.

After twenty minutes, add the can of coconut milk and bring the mixture back to a boil. Simmer it for a moment.

Turn off the heat and blend the soup. An immersion blender is useful here. Be careful if you use a regular blender or other method, and remember the soup is hot.

Once the soup is blended, return it to the pan if necessary, turn the heat back on, and stir in the orange juice.

Now your soup is ready to eat! Serve with toast, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc.

This is a very flavorful soup, with the tangy savoriness and hint of spice bolstered by the sweetness of the fruit. Ms. Duncan also provides a quick and easy voodoo spice mix recipe in the book should you not have any available to you, as I didn’t. I definitely recommend that you salt this soup to taste. As someone who’s worked in restaurant kitchens, I would actually suggest salting as you go, with a sprinkle at every other cooking step, rather than adding a bunch of salt at the end. Of course, if you’re cooking for differing levels of sodium requirements, then having each diner add their own once the soup is served is absolutely fine, too.

Next week, we continue our run of savory treats with an Italian dish while investigating the suspicious reappearance of someone long thought dead. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: Five Furry Familiars by Lynn Cahoon