Candy Holliday has put together a cooking event being sponsored by the newspaper she edits. When her Mistress of Ceremonies doesn't show up, Candy has to keep the event going. She finds a jar of pickles which are labeled with a store's name. She hides the jar away but someone finds it and steals some of the pickles. When Ned dies, Candy just manages to stop the judges from sampling them. Ned was an old friend of her father's and this death strikes close to home.

Candy learns that Wanda was at the hospital getting her stomach pumped because someone left a jar of the same pickles out for her to pick up. Next an elderly lady is found dead after eating the pickles from a jar left in her mail box.

Candy is drawn into another murder investigation as she also learns about the history of the Sweet Pickle Deli. The pickles were famous around the area. The owner of the deli was universally disliked.

For several books, the author has hinted at a conspiracy which revolves around this small Maine community. In TOWN IN A SWEET PICKLE, the conspiracy is coming out into the open. The main focus of this book is the cruelty of the poisoner and the events that lead up to the deaths. Exposing a tangled web of blackmail, a thieving villain and a desire for revenge, will put Candy in danger.

While I've loved this series from the start, I'm glad to see the possibility of a conspiracy is beginning to be exposed. B. B. Haywood has constructed another mystery which involves the reader's emotion as Candy investigates the clues that will lead her to identify the killer.

Book Summary

In the quiet coastal community of Cape Willington, Maine, Candy Holliday is a local farmer who dutifully tends to her blueberry fields— and steps in to solve the occasional murder . . . When Candy organizes a cooking event for her local newspaper, the town’s most prominent citizens turn out to witness the popular cookbook author Julia von Fleming serve as a guest judge. But when Julia comes close to consuming a poisoned pickle, she begins to suspect someone in Cape Willington is trying to kill her—and Candy is completely jarred to be among the suspects. But the first taste was just a sample, and soon more jars of poisoned pickles begin to pop up around town. In the face of a pickled poisoning spree, Candy will have to track down the culprit to make sure her own name stays well- preserved. Along the way, she’ll pull the lid off a briny barrel of blackmail, thievery, and revenge that’s been souring their seaside hometown for years…