Death by Peppermint: a Small Town Christmas Holiday Culinary Cozy Mystery With Dog Cane Capers Mystery

Noelle Brightwood’s beloved café, The Hearth & Hearth, is the cozy heart of Peppermint Hollow, Vermont—especially during the holidays. This December, she’s created her most magical event yet: the Advent Cocoa Countdown, where customers open numbered envelopes each day to discover specialty hot cocoa recipes, festive treats, and delightful surprises. But when local real estate developer Warren Frost collapses after eating a candy cane from Day Ten’s envelope, Noelle’s Christmas dream becomes a nightmare. The police discover the candy cane was laced with poison, and five more poisoned treats are hidden throughout the remaining calendar days—each one pointing to someone who had reason to want Warren dead.With her café sealed as a crime scene and her reputation on the line, Noelle teams up with her quick-witted best friend Ivy to uncover the truth. Every suspect seems to have the perfect motive: Warren’s bitter ex-wife who lost everything in their divorce, the quiet carpenter whose family land was stolen through legal trickery, the struggling café owner facing ruin, and even the town’s perky activities coordinator hiding a desperate secret. As threatening messages arrive and danger escalates, Noelle must use her gift for reading people—honed through years as a children’s librarian—to figure out who turned her Advent calendar into a deadly game. With her faithful Corgi-Pom mix Nutmeg by her side and the whole town watching, she’ll need to solve the mystery before the killer strikes again.