The Chocolate Cupid Killings (Chocoholic Series #9) » (Bargain)

JoAnna Carl is the pseudonym for a multipublished mystery writer. She spent more than twenty-five years in the newspaper business.

Ninth in the scrumptious-and national bestselling-Chocoholic Mystery series.

TenHuis Chocolade is wall-to- wall with chocolate hearts for Valentine's Day. But Lee is getting no love from Private Detective Derrick Valentine.

He's looking for their employee-a woman Lee and her Aunt Nettie have been harboring for an underground railroad-type organization that aids abused women. Luckily, they manage to not spill the cocoa beans and clue him in.

But the situation becomes a complex confection when Valentine meets his end. And it's Aunt Nettie who becomes a suspect. Lee will have to find a way to free Nettie of guilt without exposing the innocent-and find a killer with a bitter heart that's definitely not made of chocolate...

Kirkus Reviews

Though the TenHuis Chocolade gals of Warner Pier, Mich., are busy selling luscious Valentine's Day treats, finding a Valentine body in their alley can't be good for business. When private detective Derrick Valentine shows up flashing a photo of missing Christina Meachum, store manager Lee Woodyard denies knowing any such person, even though the picture looks just like one of her employees. Pamela has been placed in TenHuis Chocolade by the owner, Lee's Aunt Nettie, whose friend Sarajane runs an underground railroad for battered woman. When Valentine is found dead behind the store dumpster, Lee and her friends and relatives are in a quandary. Neither Nettie's husband, the town police chief, nor Lee's, the city attorney, knew of the scheme to keep Pamela hidden. The underground picks up Pamela and moves her along, but not far enough to escape her problems. Meanwhile, a crooked financier is using his Warner Pier home for a hideout, and Lee's husband refuses to explain why he's meeting with some mysterious strangers. Lee's poking into Pamela's past opens such a nasty can of worms that she ends up in real danger. Like Lee's earlier cases (The Chocolate Snowman Murders, 2008, etc.), this one offers enough mystery and chocolate trivia to keep fans happily turning pages while munching on bonbons (not supplied).