Title:	The Candy Cane Caper
	Author:	Josi S. Kilpack
	Published:	October 1, 2019, Shadow Mountain
	No. of Pages:	320
	Cover Price:	$15.99 Paperback, $9.99 Kindle

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Sadie Hoffmiller is a delightful character who is the protagonist in twelve previous culinary mystery novels; Wedding Cake was supposed to be the end of the series, and most readers were very disappointed to learn that after Sadie’s marriage, there were to be no more. However, fans will be delighted that Josi S Kilpack has added another installment to the series, and while a bit different from the previous novels, The Candy Cane Caper is delightful. There is no dead body in this novel, And Sadie, amateur sleuth extraordinaire, is out to solve a different sort of mystery.

Sadie and Pete are happily married now and living in Ft. Collins, Colorado. One of Sadie’s good friends, Mary, who is in her 90s has moved to a managed care facility, and even though she is blind, wants to put up her cherished heirloom Christmas ornaments on a tree in her room; even though Mary can’t see them, her family and friends can. Sadie is helping her friend put up the tree, and learns that the ornaments are worth over $40,000, and Mary is leaving them to her granddaughter, Joy. Some of the ornaments are then stolen, and even though Mary doesn’t know yet, Sadie sets out to investigate the theft and tries to solve it before Mary has to be told.

The book features well-developed characters, including Mary’s daughter, who seems bitter, and is a prime suspect, as well as other characters who are cleverly woven into the story; readers won’t know whom to suspect or whom to trust. The book isn’t particularly suspenseful, which is different from the previous novels in this series, but readers will enjoy the lightness of the novel and the fact that there is no graphic violence, sex, or language. It’s a great novel to read at Christmas time, and includes some great recipes; the recipes are reason enough to read this novel, but the story is fun, too.

Fans of the previous novels will love this book, and those unfamiliar will want to go back and read the previous novels to get more insight into Sadie Hoffmiller.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.