Four months ago, the tragic events of a Halloween gone awry caused baker and amateur sleuth Lindsey Bakewell’s best friend, Kennedy Kapoor, to leave their small town of Beacon Harbor, Michigan. Kennedy had needed to lick her wounds back in her hometown of London, England, and had regretfully broken up with her boyfriend, Beacon Harbor’s own Officer Tuck McAllister, in the process. Now, she’s back with a new boyfriend in tow–just in time for the village’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Tuck has also seemingly moved on. He’s begun dating Colleen O’Connor, the cousin of Lindsey’s boyfriend, Rory Campbell. Colleen and her father, Finn, only recently arrived in America, having decided to leave a string of bad luck behind them in Ireland to open a new gift shop and pub in Beacon Harbor instead. Finn has already charmed plenty of the locals with his good looks and ability to spin a tall tale. In fact, he’ll tell anyone who will listen that his bad luck in Ireland was a direct result of having run afoul of a leprechaun.

Ordinarily, Lindsey and Rory would consider this a bit of harmless blarney–except for the fact that a strange, small man dressed as a leprechaun has been frightening folks in Beacon Harbor all St. Patrick’s Day. Worse, he appears to have been the person behind the near-fatal attack on harmless Fred Landry, one of their village officers. When Mr. Leprechaun is found dead the next morning and Finn miraculously turns up with a pot of actual gold, all eyes turn to Finn as prime suspect in the green-clad man’s murder.

Trouble is, though, no one has any idea who Mr. Leprechaun might actually be. Finn swears that he never harmed the fellow, only tricked him into revealing where he’d hidden his pot of gold. Rory is convinced of his uncle’s innocence, and soon enough, he, Lindsey, Kennedy, and Tuck are investigating what happened. Because surely leprechauns aren’t real and there must be a completely logical reason for all the strange things happening in Beacon Harbor?

It’s certainly an eventful return for Kennedy, who is one of my favorite characters in this series alongside Lindsey herself. I was genuinely scared at the end of the previous book, Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant, that we might never see her again. I’m so glad she’s back, even if I do find the dynamic between herself and Rory occasionally tiresome. Lindsey, fortunately, does her best to run interference and make sure that they’re all on the same team when capturing crooks.

There were five delicious recipes included here, all of dishes wonderfully described in the novel. I decided to try out this one:

Colleen’s Famous Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

⅓ cup melted butter

1 ⅓ cup buttermilk

1 egg

1 cup raisins

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. This recipe works great in a cast-iron skillet. If you don’t have one, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. On low speed, stir in the melted butter, the buttermilk, the egg and the raisins. Mix just until a soft dough forms. Don’t overmix the dough. It’s going to be a little sticky. Using your hands, form the dough into a large ball.

Place the shaped dough into the iron skillet or on the prepared baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut an X into the top of the dough. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the bread has a nice golden-brown crust. Enjoy!

I decided to omit using raisins in this recipe, as I’m not the biggest fan of them but really wanted to bake a soda bread. In fairness, raisins aren’t truly traditional, so I didn’t feel bad not adding them here. That said, I do recommend using a very level amount of both baking soda and baking powder in this; I’ve grown a bit sensitive to the taste of both and found that my heavy hand when measuring out ingredients meant that I occasionally got a metallic taste when enjoying this otherwise terrific bread. The Irish soda bread is especially good slathered with butter and contrasts deliciously as an accompaniment to savory dishes.

Next week, we make another Irish-inspired dish while celebrating more spring holidays with several very different sleuths. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: Irish Milkshake Murder by Carlene O’Connor, Peggy Ehrhart & Liz Ireland