Lyndsey Murray has fought hard for her family’s Spice Isle Bakery to be included in Brooklyn’s Caribbean American Heritage Festival. Despite some initial setbacks, her bakery represents itself well. Even Sheryl Cross, the prickly festival organizer who’d tried to block their initial application after the Murrays were implicated in two homicides, is mollified enough to consider hiring the bakery to cater her daughter’s society wedding.

Sheryl isn’t the only person experiencing a change of heart: Lyndsey is starting to reconsider the hard line she’s maintained against being anything other than professional when dealing with her former high school crush, New York City Police Detective Bryce Jackson. It’s obvious that he’s interested in her romantically, and no one else in her family is holding a grudge against him for considering them his prime suspects in the prior homicides. In fact, they’re all encouraging her to give him a chance. Lyndsey might be able to resist the handsome homicide detective on his own, but she’s finding it harder to say no to both him and her family.

Love is also in the air for Lyndsey’s cousin Manny, who is excited to introduce his extended family to his newest romantic interest. Camille Abbey is the lead singer of DragonFlyZ, an up-and-coming reggae band based in Brooklyn. Camille and Manny met and bonded while he was working as a sound engineer on DragonFlyZ’s latest album, a charity CD benefiting the West Indian American Relief Fund. The CD has multiplied the band’s fanbase exponentially, spurring sales of their older records too. They’re set to perform at the Caribbean festival, and Lyndsey is looking forward to taking time off from selling baked goods to groove to their music.

Tragedy strikes at the end of the festival, however, when Camille is found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Manny is convinced that she was pushed and turns to Lyndsey for help when the police seem to be dragging their feet over the case. Having now successfully solved two murders herself, Lyndsey agrees to look into the matter. But who could have possibly wanted sweet, humble Camille dead? Turns out that the music business is far more cutthroat than Lyndsey ever imagined, as she uncovers plenty of motive in her perilous quest to expose the truth.

The Spice Isle Bakery Mystery series goes from strength to strength as Lyndsey finally starts to not only feel comfortable with her sleuthing but also to feel more confident in her own skin. I love how supportive her family is throughout, as well as how Olivia Matthews continues to use more naturalistic language in the dialogue. It was also great to see the legal aftermath of the events that took place in the second book in the series, Hard Dough Homicide, adding to the overall verisimilitude of these books.

There were two recipes for puddings included with this novel, and I decided to try out this one:

Coconut Pudding

Dry ingredients

½ cup cornstarch

½ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup toasted coconut flakes

¼ cup ground cinnamon

Wet ingredients

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups coconut milk

Utensils

Saucepan, small

Whisk

Dessert cups, 4

Instructions

In a small saucepan, combine cornstarch, sugar, and salt.

Add vanilla extract

Use the whisk to whisk in coconut milk. Over low heat, allow the mixture to simmer, stirring constantly until the contents thicken (approximately 6 minutes).

Remove the saucepan from the heat. Pour the pudding into dessert cups.

Place the dessert cups in the refrigerator to cool (approximately 1 hour).

Garnish cooled pudding with toasted coconut flakes and ground cinnamon.

I definitely had a different expectation of the consistency of the final product, but once I reconciled that idea with the reality, I wholeheartedly enjoyed this coconut pudding. This isn’t a firm or even a jiggly dessert–the consistency is even thinner than yogurt–but the flavors are amazing, especially with the toasted coconut. I enjoyed this almost like a parfait, using generous portions of toasted coconut and adding fresh blueberries to give it a little zing.

I do have to warn the novice cook that getting the coconut milk to a simmer on low will take at least half an hour, after which you can use the recipe’s six minute timer to continue thickening it. I did have to toast my own coconut flakes, but the end result was well worth it. This pudding is not too sweet and feels almost healthy when you add fruit. It’s a great dessert or breakfast treat!

Next week, we travel to the Midwest to enjoy a savory appetizer while solving an isolated manor house murder. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: The Dog Across the Lake by Krista Davis