Playing With Bonbon Fire: A Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Crooked Lane Books (March 13, 2018)
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1683314684
Digital ASIN: B074MBXLWX

Chocoholic Charity Penn must smoke out the killer to stop her newly inherited beachside chocolate shop from going up in flames in Dorothy St. James’ decadent follow-up to Asking for Truffle.

Chocolate shop owner Charity Penn is finally settling into life in the quirky South Carolina seaside town of Camellia Beach cooking up chocolate treats. She’s even helped organize the town’s lively beach music festival which has brought rollicking crowds eager to dance the Carolina shag. That is, until one of the band’s lead singers is found dead beside a beach bonfire.

While also trying to balance the amorous attention of music star Bixby Lewis, in town for the festival, and her quest to perfect a new hot flavored bonbon, Charity dives into the investigation. Though it’s more spice than sugar when she discovers a threatening note, comes across decades of age-old secrets, and Bixby comes into the line of fire when a gas grill explodes on the deck of a beachfront house.

Now Charity must turn up the heat and catch the killer before her chance melts away in Playing With Bonbon Fire, the delightful second Southern Chocolate Shop mystery served up just right for fans of JoAnna Carl and Joanne Fluke.

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Guest Post

Stop! Don’t Eat that Chocolate

By Bertie Bays from the Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery series

When my author asked me to write an article about chocolate, I thought to myself, “Why would anyone need to read an article about chocolate?” It’s chocolate. We all know what it tastes like. But then I got to thinking about it. And thinking. That’s when it hit me. Most of y’all don’t know anything about chocolate because you haven’t tasted it yet. Not really.

What you’re probably eating are winter tomatoes. Now, you’re more than likely saying to yourself, “Old Bertie must be losing her mind. Never in my born days have I mistaken a tomato for a piece of chocolate.”

Ah, but you have…

All that chocolate you’ve been buying at the supermarket have as much flavor as a winter tomato. They’re good to put on a sandwich…in the winter…when nothing else is available. But compare that winter tomato with its pale orange tint to a freshly picked summer heirloom tomato—the kind with a rainbow of colors on its skin. One is watery. The other has so many flavors that they dance like a troop of ballerinas on your tongue.

Chocolate—real chocolate, gourmet chocolate—has a crescendo of flavors that bloom in your mouth. The effect can last for up to 45 minutes. Now you’re thinking, “Bertie, where can I get my hands on this magical treat?” If you live near Charleston, South Carolina, come on over the bridge to Camellia Beach and buy some of the chocolates we sell at the Chocolate Box. If you can’t do that, you’ll want to find a local bean-to-bar chocolatier. The travel site, Zaget, recommends 8 popular bean-to-bar chocolate shops in the country. Alas, they seem to have overlooked the Chocolate Box. But I won’t hold that against them. Not many people have ventured to Camellia Beach and discovered how perfect life is out here. Still, it’s a shame since we produce the world’s best chocolate.

There is a chocolate shop in Atlanta, Georgia, Cacao Atlanta Chocolate that also claims to produce the world’s best chocolate. Unlike the Chocolate Box, if you can’t make it to Atlanta, they’ll ship the chocolate to you.

But I do urge you to look and see what’s available in your own town. You might be surprised to find a small production company who sells their chocolates at local farmers markets or in a few shops around town.

Now when you get your hands on this finely crafted heirloom chocolate, don’t simply pop it in your mouth and swallow. Chocolate this good is meant to be savored. Slow down. Sit down, child. This is chocolate that’s worth the wait. Hold the chocolate in your hands. How does it feel? Is it silky smooth or rough? Now smell that dark piece heaven. Is it earthy? Or fruity? Or both? Does the chocolate make a loud snap when you break it? The higher the cocoa content, the louder the snap.

Now you can put that chocolate in your mouth. Take a bite and just hold it there. Do the flavors change as they make contact with the different flavor parts of your tongue? What flavors are you tasting? How do they make you feel? And now that you’ve eaten that piece of chocolate, what flavors linger in your mouth? It should be smooth, not bitter.

Ancient Aztecs believed that chocolate was a gift from the gods. I don’t know about that. But I do know that the cacao beans that are used to create chocolate are gifts from the tropical rainforests where they evolved and should be treated with the respect they deserve, even if it means slowing down and savoring the flavors the rainforests of South America have gifted to us.

Now go. Have some chocolate. And eat it slow.

And be sure to pick up the second installment in the exciting Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery Series, Playing with Bonbon Fire, available NOW from Crooked Lane Books. Spicy chocolate recipes are included at the end to tease your tastebuds.

Chocolate shop owner, Charity Penn is at it again-cooking up chocolate treats while trying to keep everyone in the quirky seaside town of Camellia Beach safe. A threatening note, a dead musician, and decades of secrets put the town’s first beach music festival and its band members in grave danger.

With help from her meddling half-sister and a new flavor of chocolate sweets to ignite the senses, Penn follows the shifting tide of evidence to uncover the truth behind a nearly forty-year-old mystery.

About the Author

Mystery author Dorothy St. James was born in New York but raised in South Carolina. She makes her home on an artsy island community in South Carolina with her husband, a neurotic dog, and fluffy cat. Though writing has always been a passion for her, she pursued an undergraduate degree in Wildlife Biology and a graduate degree in Public Administration and Urban Planning. She put her educational experience to use, having worked in all branches and all levels of government including local, regional, state, and federal. She even spent time during college working for a non-profit environmental watchdog organization.

Switching from government service and community planning to fiction writing wasn’t as big of a change as some might think. Her government work was all about the stories of the people and the places where they live. As an urban planner, Dorothy loved telling the stories of the people she met. And from that, her desire to tell the tales that were so alive in her heart grew until she could not ignore it any longer. In 2001, she took a leap of faith and pursued her dream of writing fiction full-time.

Dorothy St. James, known for the White House Gardener Mystery series, has gone back to her roots and set a mystery series in a Southern beach town much like the one she’s called home for the past 20 years. The Southern Chocolate Shop Mysteries combine her love of fine chocolates, quirky Southern charm, with a dash of danger. Asking for Truffle is the first book in this exciting new series. Playing with Bonbon Fire came out in March 2018 and In Cold Chocolate is scheduled to release September 2018.

* Dorothy St. James is the alter-ego of the award-winning multi-published author, Dorothy McFalls. She enjoys writing in several different genres. Her works have been nominated for many awards including Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, Reviewers International Organization Award, National Reader’s Choice Award, CataRomance Reviewers’ Choice Award, and The Romance Reviews Today Perfect 10! Award. Reviewers have called her work: “amazing”, “perfect”, “filled with emotion”, and “lined with danger.”

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