Perhaps the hardest personal aspect of this investigation, well, other than being considered a suspect, was the need for Willa to avoid contact with boyfriend-detective Heath. Seems his superior is watching this one very closely and would like nothing better than to take the case away from Heath, thus denying Willa what protection he can provide from harassment. If only she hadn't given in to that moment of pique and left that now questionable note with the chocolates she delivered to the newsroom for the brand new shop. Nothing like leaving your fingerprints and a potential threat in broad daylight. Needless to say, despite being stunned that the pop-up chocolate shop is headed by her ex-finance and former best friend, Willa carries on what she does so well, trying to run her own cheese shop as usual while ferreting out evidence and questioning potential suspects, even those who happen to be people she likes.
So, who poisoned the new, quite pushy newspaper reporter? Who had motive and opportunity to put the poison into the chocolate rum cremes? We barely got to meet ambitious reporter Kevin Wallace before he was dead, so little is known about him other than that he'd surely managed to annoy many in a short time, but...enough to kill him? Or, wait. Was he even the target? Or was it Gazette editor/owner AJ? Or, gasp, even Willa? I won't detail the plot further other than to say that there seem to be ample suspects but none with a seemingly legit reason to kill. Willa is already unhappy by the presence of her former fiance Pearce and former friend Riley but reluctantly agrees to help. Side-stories are less stressful, with even some budding romances. And, oh, for those unaware, a pop-up shop is meant as a temporary shop, usually used to test a new product line in an area with heavy foot traffic.
Bottom line, lots going on, including some humor. I'm pretty sure Willa didn't like how her bed-head hair was described, for instance, and AJ's attachment to that fedora certainly isn't helpful in going undercover. The characters were likable and it was fun watching them interact and deal with their own lives, romantic and otherwise, in addition to helping Willa with the case. Yarrow Glen sounds like an intriguing town with close knit shop and shop owners who support each other through both the good and bad times. It was sad to see the sudden drop in trust of food places as a result of the poisoning but perhaps that is normal. Fortunately, I've had no experience with that. You'll get to know them by the time to big reveal of whodunit rolls around, one that was a bit of a surprise to me, I must admit, even though it made sense. Thanks #St.Martin'sPress for giving me this early look at how Willa's life is progressing in Yarrow Glen. After that scene at the end definitely looking forward to the next book.
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