Just Desserts

First in the series: A full-figured Southern police detective transplanted to sunny California untangles the murder of a politician's husband. Detective Sergeant Savannah Reid is a long way from Georgia, but she'll go anywhere for good food and good friends. And policing the exclusive Southern California town of San Carmelita is as tasty as sausage-gravy-and-biscuits with super-spicy home fries. Until city councilwoman Beverly Winston's husband turns up deadand an unprecedented media frenzy sweeps the elite beach community like a tsunami. The good newsSavannah is put in charge of the case. The badshe's pressured to investigate any person of interest except the main one: Beverly herself. And when Savannah refuses to play ball, she's summarily fired for ';being overweight.' But when another suspect hires her to find the truth, Savannah turns up the heat on an unsavory mess of triple-dealing, infidelity, and betrayal that will rock San Carmelita's sun-soaked elegance to its coreand put a calculating murderer's target dead on Savannah's back. Starring a ';warm, winsome, and weight-bedeviled' heroine whose down-home savvy can solve the most sophisticated crimes, this series is a delight for mystery fans (Publishers Weekly).