Murder spills the tea

Lily Roberts, owner of Tea by the Sea on Cape Cod, isn't happy when her good friend Bernie and her grandmother, Rose, enter her as a contestant on a reality-TV show called America Bakes! During the filming, Lily must close the shop to customers, and she has no real interest in being on television; add to that her anger at the nasty treatment of one of her employees by a judge on the show. Matters get worse when the judge is found murdered in the restaurant's kitchen, and Lily's waitress Cheryl, who threatened the victim, is the chief suspect. Lily, Bernie, and Rose investigate the television crew, the judges, and a few local residents who may have had a motive for murder. Sympathetic characters, a charming setting, the baking frame, and appended recipes distinguish this cozy, which will appeal to fans of Laura Childs' Theodosia Browning tea-shop mysteries and Cleo Coyle's coffeehouse-set series.

Virtuoso pastry chef Lily Roberts, no mean detective, takes on another case of murder. Lily never wanted to enter a made-for-TV cooking contest, but she has no choice when Bernadette Murphy, her best friend, and Rose Campbell, her maternal grandmother--who owns the Victoria-on-Sea B & B whose grounds are graced by Lily's shop, Tea by the Sea--enter her in the contest. On America Bakes! each episode takes place at a different bakery, and one will be proclaimed the winner at the end of the season. Lily quickly learns that America Bakes! is nowhere near as civilized as The Great British Baking Show when director Josh Henshaw and his assistant, Reilly Miller, arrive at Tea by the Sea and deliberately begin to stir up tensions. Lily's helpers, Cheryl and her daughter, Marybeth, will be serving the food; the judges are New York City baker Claudia D'Angelo, bad-tempered English chef Tommy Greene, and Scarlet McIntosh, who's just a pretty face. Although Josh drives Lily crazy with his demands, they manage to get through the first day with nothing worse than an uncomfortable visit from Lily's competitor, Allegra Griffin, the unpleasant owner of the North Augusta Bakery. The second day is a different story. Marybeth trips and dumps tea in Tommy's lap, causing a scene that's just what the showrunners want, especially when Cheryl berates Tommy, saying she saw him trip Marybeth on purpose. When Tommy is found dead in Lily's kitchen, his head bashed with her marble rolling pin, Cheryl is an obvious suspect. Lily, Bernie, and Rose use gossip, deep-dive computer searches, and observations of the bickering crew to unmask the killer. Cape Cod provides an appealing backdrop for a food-centric cozy replete with red herrings and likable sleuths. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.