License to Dill

January 1, 2015

Six months ago, Piper Lamb quit the city and her former boyfriend to open her pickle and preserve shop, Piper's Picklings, in Cloverdale. Just as things seem to be going well for Piper and her local Christmas tree farmer, Will Burchett, her ex comes to town, and that is just the start of her problems. When an Italian soccer team arrives to play an exhibition game, the rivalry between the team's manager, Raffaele Conti, and Piper's dill supplier, Gerald Standley, comes to light. Things turn sour when Conti's body is recovered in Standley's field, and Piper must prove Standley's innocence before someone else ends up dead. VERDICT Hughes's second series entry (after The Pickled Piper) will delight fans of culinary cozies. While the small-town scenario breaks no boundaries, fans of Susan Wittig Albert's "China Bayles" series should enjoy this plucky heroine.

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