A Rolling Pin and a Bitter End

Elara "Ellie" Stone, a perfectionist baker, thought inheriting her great-aunt's Vermont farmhouse and the historic Maple Leaf Bakehouse was a sweet deal. She quickly discovered the truth was much more bitter: the bakery is drowning in debt to the ruthless local creditor, Gideon Pike, and her farmhouse is a decaying antique hoard. Things go from bad to dough-worse when her kind neighbor, Martha Caldwell, turns up dead—the priceless Governor's Gingerbread recipe clutched in their hand. The only clue Ellie can find is the recipe itself, which is missing its crucial, seasonal ingredient: Golden Sugarbush Syrup. As Ellie races against time to recreate the recipe and save her business, she locks horns with Alistair Finch, a wealthy, arrogant antique collector obsessed with acquiring one item: the grandmother's rolling pin. Ellie suspects Finch is the killer, but his true motive is even more complex. That innocent-looking pin holds a hidden map to the exclusive sugarbush, the very source of the rare syrup, and a fortune. With the scent of cinnamon and danger in the air, Ellie—with the help of her cynical, loyal employee, Cora—must sift through old grudges and hidden secrets to catch a killer before her inheritance, and her life, crumble completely.