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Sweet
Pepper, Tennessee's fire chief, Stella Griffin, has made a
home for herself, and is good at her job leading the volunteer
fire brigade. It helps that she has the ghost of a former
chief at her side, but as this adventure starts out, Ghost
Chief Eric Gamlyn has been spirited away by the evil Madam
Emery, and needs to be rescued in order to help Stella with
fire, culinary arts for the upcoming annual recipe contest,
and to provide her with companionship at the fire chief's
cottage they cohabit. His rescue occurs with a little help
from some friends, but it doesn't come without a price-three
other spirits are rescued, and Stella has to find a way to
get them home to their own kin.
The Sweet
Pepper area has long had its fair share of illegal whiskey
making stills, often overlooked intentionally by local law
enforcement. Lately, however, there has been a rash of explosions
and fires at some stills, and it appears that a whiskey war
from yesteryear has reared its ugly head again. Stella has
barely gotten involved with trying to solve the explosions,
fires, and resultant problems, when a deliberate attempt is
made on her life. When the local police and the sheriff don't
seem to be taking the situation seriously enough, things escalate,
and Stella knows she's going to have to dig deeper into the
rubble of the whiskey war revival.
Having
enjoyed the previous three books in this series, I was excited
about a new one coming out, and I'm so happy that it lived
up to my expectations. This is a cozy that hits all the points
of a good cozy- murder, mayhem, mystery, suspense, small town
camaraderie, a touch of romance, and a healthy dose of the
paranormal.
The J.
J. Cook writing team blazed a trail with this series featuring
a female fire chief with a ghostly cohort, and a lovable fire-dog
who is one of the few who can see and communicate with Chief
Gamlyn. You can't go wrong with any of the books in this series,
and although Sweet Pepper Hero is just fine as a stand-alone
read, I highly recommend that you read the previous three
books too.
Reviews
of other titles in this series
That
Old Flame of Mine
Playing
with Fire
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