Columbus author spices up things in finale of mystery series
Olivia Matthews knows how to keep her readers hungry for more.
The Columbus-based author (Olivia Matthews is the pen name of author Patricia Sergeant) of the "Spice Isle Bakery" cozy mystery series has wrapped up the series in a bow after a mere three books published within the span of a year.
The first in the series, “Against the Currant,” introduces 20-something heroine Lyndsay Murray, who has quit her job in marketing to head a family-run West-Indian bakery in Brooklyn, New York.
As soon as the bakery opens, it is rocked by a scandal when an abrasive rival is murdered the day after he confronts Lyndsay in the bakery. She is both appalled and delighted in spite of herself when she discovers that the detective investigating the murder is her high school crush, Bryce Jackson, of the “tawny angular features and deep-set hazel brown eyes.”
When he doesn't move to clear her name as fast as she'd like, Lyndsay sets out to solve the case on her own, putting herself in danger, but eventually figuring out the identity of the murderer.
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When the second book in the series, “Hard Dough Homicide,” begins a few weeks later, Lyndsay, now nicknamed the “Grenadian Nancy Drew” by the neighborhood, faces a new challenge when the guest of honor at a retirement dinner catered at the bakery dies of poisoning.
To clear the bakery's name, she takes a close look at the dinner's guests, all of whom have ample motives for getting rid of the detestable high school principal.
Series-ender “Coconut Drop Dead” takes place a month later, at the Caribbean American Heritage Festival, where the bakery has a booth. There, her cousin's new girlfriend, a singer in a band, is pushed down a set of steps and dies.
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Fortunately, this time, none of Lyndsay's loved ones is a suspect, but she steps in when Bryce – possibly with some ulterior romantic motives – needs some help with interviewing members of the local Caribbean community.
Matthews knows how to craft a lively, fast-moving mystery with a full cast of intriguing suspects and a satisfyingly surprising ending, and she sets these novels in a warm family and community, including Lyndsay's spunky, glamorous grandmother.
Family, faith and hard work win out over larceny every time here.
Readers whose mouths are watering from the descriptions of Caribbean delicacies can experiment with some of the recipes Matthews provides in each novel, including those for coconut bread, currant rolls, baked sweet-potato pudding and more.
The series may have come to an end, but readers hooked on Sergeant's writing needn't despair − she has written more than a dozen romantic suspense novels under her own name and that of Regina Hart.
And her alter-ego Olivia Matthews has been busy as well. Besides the "Spice Isle Bakery" series, she has penned the "Peach Coast Library" mystery series, about a Brooklyn librarian who relocated to Georgia, and the "Sister Lou" mysteries, featuring a nun from California transplanted to a small town in New York.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Keeping things spicy, Columbus author wraps up mystery series
