More Than One Pancake, More Than a Little Panic
In Pancake Panic, book 17 in the Murder in the Mix series, Addison Moore plays with readers' minds as she begins with a breakfast and ends with a cat--both pancakes, and both inciting panic.
Honey Hollow, Vermont is holding a pancake breakfast at the firehouse to benefit the community center. As usual, baker Lottie Lemon is catering--and as UNusual, nothing's going right. Pancakes are burning, syrup is running out, and Lottie needs to go home for some downtime... until she spots the ghost of her father and the body of his golfing buddy.
Meanwhile, the resident ghosts of Miranda Lemon's "haunted" B&B are staging a haunting strike until they can eat and drink like the newer ghosts, Gemma the giddy llama and Rudolph the alcoholic reindeer. Lottie's mom complains that her tour group wasn't scared and she had to refund their $80 each. Boo hoo, thinks Lottie, though she profits from her mom's Last Thing They Ate stop, where tourists go to her bakery and buy out whatever sweet treat was found in, on, or near the body. (HH has averaged 1 murder a month for the past 17 months, and Lottie's baked goods are always involved, to the point that Lily, her employee, asks right away what ingredients she should buy so they can whip up a bunch of extras!) Lottie can't help it that she sees the ghost of a dearly departed pet--or, in her father's case, friend--before someone close to the ghost ends up dead. It's a condition, passed down from her grandmother to her bio mother to her, and as her powers grow she can not only see the ghosts, she can hear them talk--humans and animals--and they can move objects, cute when it's a well-trained dog but scary when it's an ex-circus bear. More recently the ghosts have gained the ability to eat and drink, and the "older" ghosts don't like it!
Miranda, a classic "merry widow", drones on and on about the men in her life and her desire for a new lover--unaware that her dead husband is next to her! She simply thinks she feels close to him because it's post-Christmas. Lottie and her bio mom Carlotta know better, but Carlotta thinks it's funny, while Lottie is scandalized.
Lottie can't take the high road, though--she's torn between Noah the homicide detective and Everett the judge. She's married both of them (long story) but isn't sleeping with either of them (longer story). Suffice it to say, Noah's terrible mother succeeded in driving her son away from Lottie, and Everett's almost as terrible mother hosted a wedding reception for which Noah's mom insisted he take Lottie shopping for a dress. The marriage is only a business arrangement to help Everett get his inheritance, but the mothers think it's real, and so does Noah. Lottie first sees her ghostly dad, in fact, while she's watching Noah stalk away. He, her grandmother Nell, and Everett all tell her Noah has left angry, she's angry too, and they can't end things like that. They need to have a real, serious conversation about their unfinished business and determine if they should continue or say goodbye forever. Both men love her but are willing to respect her choice. She loves them both, too, and can't choose!
The ex-girlfriend leeches, Cormack (Noah) and Cressida (Everett) do their best to convince "their" men that they are destined to be with them rather than the dowdy baker. Cormack even fakes a pregnancy to push Lottie away from Noah! Both of them call Lottie a witch and say they know how to break the spell she's put on the men. Later, when Lottie wants to cuddle with her cats for comfort, Everett can only find Waffles. Pancake is missing!
When Cormack arrives at Noah's house, to which she's stolen his spare key, Lottie sees scratches on her neck and threatens to press charges for breaking and entering and pet theft. Of course, Noah's key ring has the spare key to Lottie's house, so Cormack merely entered the house and took Pancake back to her room at the B&B, where she's sure "the beast" is getting cat hair on her "couture". Boo hoo again, thinks Lottie, but she demands her cat back so fiercely, Cormack has to comply.
The leeches get their vengeance, however. Cormack and Cressida show up at the bakery with another sorority sister, a real witch who curses Lottie and, according to Cressida, ensures she and Cormack will marry their target princes and--the ultimate insult--get their wedding cakes from another baker, the "best in Vermont"! Lottie doesn't believe in witchcraft but feels a sudden chill, then heat, then dizziness. Noah and Everett burst into the bakery and assure her of their love, but then a mystery man appears and one of them clocks him. Who is he, why is he here, and what prompted the knockout punch? That's what book 18 should answer!
The plot thickens, previous characters develop on both sides of the life/death divide, and Lottie is no closer to a decision than she was in book 2! The identity of the murderer is secondary to subplots about relationships among Lottie, Noah, Everett, and the leeches. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!