Poison in the Pudding is the seventeenth book in Kathi Daley’s heartwarming The Inn at Holiday Bay series. Every time I pick up one of Ms. Daley’s books, I know I’m in for a treat, and I’ve never been disappointed. The setting in this series is charming, and the well-developed characters are three-dimensional, compassionate, and caring. The storyline flows smoothly, and the book is a clean read with a perfect blend of mystery, heartache, joy, and caring with a touch of sweet romance. I highly recommend this series to readers who enjoy well-crafted cozy mysteries.
After Abby Sullivan lost her husband and their infant son in a tragic accident, she moved to Holiday Bay, Maine, opened the Inn at Holiday Bay, made a new life for herself, and found a home and a family. Georgia Carter, who has also overcome obstacles in her life, is the inn’s talented cook/baker and manager, and her dog, Ramos, live with Abby, Rufus, a Maine Coon, and Molly, a terrier mix, in a cottage located on the property. Georgia’s cooking show, Cooking with Georgia, is doing quite well. Jeremy Slater, who lives in the inn’s basement apartment with his young niece, Annabelle, is a valuable asset who helps with the inn’s day-to-day operations.
When the town’s well-respected mayor becomes violently ill and dies while attending a town-sponsored Thanksgiving dinner, Police Chief Colt Wilder is perplexed. The coroner determines that Mayor Wallace ingested poison, which caused his death, but Colt is unable to come up with either a motive or a suspect. Abby, who is helping with the investigation, and Colt become concerned that if the mayor wasn’t the intended victim, there might be a deranged killer in town. Abby, Georgia, and several returning guests help an elderly couple staying at the inn search for their missing fifteen-year-old granddaughter.