A Pinch of Deceit. This item is unavailable.A Pinch of Deceit

A dead man. A locked room. A town ready to blame someone.

At seventeen minutes past five on a cold October morning, Clara Whitfield finds a body in the storeroom of her beloved bakery.

Edwin Pruett, Hollow Creek's notoriously unpopular zoning officer, is dead on the floor of the Flour & Fable. The storeroom was locked. Nothing appears to be missing. And before long, the town has settled on the obvious suspect: Desmond Cole, the local locksmith who publicly threatened Edwin just days before his death.

The evidence seems damning. Desmond's key ring is found near the body. A threatening note turns up in Edwin's home. And Desmond has no alibi for the crucial hours before dawn.

But Clara isn't convinced.

She's noticed things that don't fit—a strange cardamom scent in the storeroom, a photograph that raises more questions than it answers, and details about the murder that seem just a little too convenient. As everyone around her becomes increasingly certain that the case is solved, Clara finds herself wondering whether Hollow Creek has made a terrible mistake.

Because sometimes the truth is hidden in the smallest details.

A missing twenty-five minutes.
A familiar handwriting sample.
A recipe card.
A set of keys.
A little sachet of cardamom.

And Clara is beginning to suspect that the person who knows exactly how to make everything look innocent may be much closer than anyone realizes.

In Hollow Creek, everyone has a secret. But only one of them is murder.

A Pinch of Deceit is a cozy small-town murder mystery filled with bakery treats, suspicious neighbors, hidden clues, and a puzzle that rewards careful readers.