Murder in the Midnight Batter
(2025)(The third book in the Harvest Moon Diner Murder Mystery series)
A novel by Diana Beckett
Harvest Moon Diner Murder Mysteries · Book 3
Spring may have cleared the snow, but Maple Ridge is still thawing out from two very public murders at Harvest Moon Diner. Tessa Bloom is determined to change the story. Her plan: a ‘Moonlight Batter Bar’ for the town’s first Summer Stack Festival, with all-night pancakes, live music, and a charity fundraiser the chamber of commerce can’t stop talking about.
It works… until the head of the festival committee drops dead over a plate of Harvest Moon’s signature blueberry stack.
The victim was the one person willing to stand up to Ridgecrest Development and their glossy plans to ‘modernize’ Tessa’s corner of Main Street. When tests show that only one bowl of batter was laced with a fast-acting toxin, the whisper campaign starts all over again. Maybe the diner really is cursed. Maybe Tessa’s kitchen is the most dangerous place in Maple Ridge.
Tessa doesn’t buy it.
With Jade running defense on the grill, Logan digging through festival footage, and Mrs Donnelly collecting small-town gossip like tips, Tessa uncovers a tangle of motives thicker than her buttermilk batter: a rival bakery chain desperate to kill the festival, a wellness influencer crusading against ‘greasy diners,’ and a developer who would profit from one more ‘unsafe’ building being condemned.
Then Tessa finds something buried in an old permit box: inspection notes, payoff rumors, and a familiar signature on a gas-line report dated the week of her Uncle Ray’s fatal fire.
As suspects close ranks and Ridgecrest’s lawyers circle, Tessa has to prove who poisoned the pancakes without becoming the next ‘accident’ on a developer’s balance sheet.
Harvest Moon survived poisoned lattes and deadly mac and cheese. This time, the murder is baked right into Tessa’s family history—and she’s finally ready to flip it.
Genre: Mystery
Spring may have cleared the snow, but Maple Ridge is still thawing out from two very public murders at Harvest Moon Diner. Tessa Bloom is determined to change the story. Her plan: a ‘Moonlight Batter Bar’ for the town’s first Summer Stack Festival, with all-night pancakes, live music, and a charity fundraiser the chamber of commerce can’t stop talking about.
It works… until the head of the festival committee drops dead over a plate of Harvest Moon’s signature blueberry stack.
The victim was the one person willing to stand up to Ridgecrest Development and their glossy plans to ‘modernize’ Tessa’s corner of Main Street. When tests show that only one bowl of batter was laced with a fast-acting toxin, the whisper campaign starts all over again. Maybe the diner really is cursed. Maybe Tessa’s kitchen is the most dangerous place in Maple Ridge.
Tessa doesn’t buy it.
With Jade running defense on the grill, Logan digging through festival footage, and Mrs Donnelly collecting small-town gossip like tips, Tessa uncovers a tangle of motives thicker than her buttermilk batter: a rival bakery chain desperate to kill the festival, a wellness influencer crusading against ‘greasy diners,’ and a developer who would profit from one more ‘unsafe’ building being condemned.
Then Tessa finds something buried in an old permit box: inspection notes, payoff rumors, and a familiar signature on a gas-line report dated the week of her Uncle Ray’s fatal fire.
As suspects close ranks and Ridgecrest’s lawyers circle, Tessa has to prove who poisoned the pancakes without becoming the next ‘accident’ on a developer’s balance sheet.
Harvest Moon survived poisoned lattes and deadly mac and cheese. This time, the murder is baked right into Tessa’s family history—and she’s finally ready to flip it.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Diana Beckett's Murder in the Midnight Batter