In Assaulted Caramel by Amanda Flower, Bailey King has dropped everything at her job at JP Chocolates in New York at a crucial time to travel to Harvest, Ohio to be with her Amish grandparents because her grandmother sent her word that her grandfather is very sick. Arriving just in time to witness a man trying to intimidate her Daddi into selling Swissman Sweets, the longtime family chocolate store, Bailey sees her Daddi collapse. The developer, Tyson Colton, just walks off without doing anything to help the older man. It turns out that Tyson has been buying up all the land on Main St. and just needs Swissman Sweets to complete his coup.
The next morning, Bailey goes downstairs to the kitchen from her grandparents’ house above the shop, only to find the body of Tyson Colton, stabbed with the special chocolate knife she gave her grandfather. When the police arrive, Deputy Carpenter, the older officer, tries to pin the blame on Jebediah, Bailey’s grandfather, despite the protests of Deputy Aiden Brody, the younger officer who seems to have a special relationship with the Kings. And Deputy Carpenter suggests that if Jebediah is too weak to have committed the murder, then Bailey must be the culprit. Thus Bailey decides to do her own investigation into the murder, especially since the sheriff hates the Amish.
I really enjoyed listening to Assaulted Caramel. The plot was clever and fun, and I enjoyed the depictions of Amish country. I don’t know of my own knowledge how accurate the depictions are, but I suspect they are reasonable. I also found the descriptions of the making of different types of chocolate interesting, and I don’t even like chocolate!
The characters in this book come alive and give a lot of fun. We come to love Daddi and Mammi, Bailey’s Amish grandparents. The character of Eileen is one we love to hate, the mother of the bride-zilla. Another fun person is Cass, Bailey’s best friend, another chocolatier who has come to Ohio to drag Bailey back to New York. But my favorite character was Jethro, the pinto pot-bellied pig who goes everywhere with Juliet, the mother of Deputy Brody.
Rebecca Mitchell narrates the audio edition of this book. She does an effective job of performing the role of Bailey, who gives a first- person narration of the book. She uses good voices for the different characters and effective inflections. The book contains a lot of internal dialogue that Bailey has with herself, and Mitchell effectively navigates those sections without our getting confused.
I enjoyed the Magical Bookshop Mystery Series by Amanda Flower, so I had high expectations for Assaulted Caramel. I was not disappointed. I thoroughly loved this book and am eager to listen to the next book in the series! I give this book five stars!
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