MURDER BY PEPPERMINT CHEESECAKE

Christmas in Christmas Tree, North Carolina, is supposed to be the sweetest time of the year. This year, someone has added murder to the menu.

December has arrived at Collins Bakery in a whirlwind of gingerbread men, eggnog cupcakes, sugar cookies, twinkling lights, wrapped presents, and Eleanor Collins's spectacular red-and-white peppermint cheesecake. With the annual Christmas on Main celebration approaching, Eleanor, Grace, Mabel, and Toffee are determined to make the season unforgettable.

Then sophisticated event consultant Victoria Bellamy arrives in town.

Victoria has been hired to transform Christmas Tree's beloved holiday festival into a regional attraction, but beneath her polished exterior, Eleanor senses something unexpected—fear. When Toffee immediately takes a dislike to another seemingly charming newcomer, Eleanor wonders whether her little dachshund has noticed something everyone else has missed.

Three days later, Victoria is found murdered in the snow beneath the Christmas lights.

Beside her body sits a beautifully wrapped present bearing an ominous message—and an open Collins Bakery box containing a slice of peppermint cheesecake.

There's only one problem.

Eleanor knows that cheesecake isn't hers.

The red-and-white stripes are wrong. Someone has copied her signature dessert and deliberately planted it beside a dead woman to point suspicion toward Collins Bakery.

Soon, Eleanor and Sheriff Caleb Parker discover that Christmas presents may have carried something far more dangerous than toys and holiday surprises. Festival money has disappeared, records don't add up, and wrapped packages have been changing hands unnoticed in a town where nobody thinks twice about seeing someone carrying a Christmas gift.

With Caleb beside her and Toffee following a trail only his remarkable nose can detect, Eleanor must unravel Victoria's secrets, separate genuine kindness from carefully practiced charm, and discover who wanted the truth buried before Christmas Eve.

But the closer they get, the more dangerous the season becomes—and this time, Toffee may have to become more than a clue finder.

He may have to become a hero.

Packed with Christmas traditions, family gatherings, mysterious presents, mouthwatering holiday baking, small-town warmth, red herrings, romance, danger, and one unforgettable long-haired dachshund, Murder by Peppermint Cheesecake is a festive Collins Bakery mystery where even the prettiest Christmas package can hide something deadly.

After the murderer is unmasked, Christmas Eve at Collins Bakery still holds one very special surprise waiting for Eleanor.

Because in Christmas Tree, some Christmas gifts come from the heart.

And others are worth killing for.