Shortbread Trails and Shadow Deals
(2025)(The fourth book in the Griddlewitch Mystery series)
A novel by Diana Beckett
Mara Kincaid thought the worst part of coming home was wearing her family’s diner apron under the stares of people who remember her public crash and burn. She was wrong.
Now the Lucky Ladle is on the brink of being shut down after a sudden stack of fire code violations that feel less like safety and more like a hit job. The timing is too perfect. The accusations are too specific. And someone out there knows details about Mara’s back rooms that only a thief with access to her stolen recipe tin would know.
Then a body turns up near the old pier with one torn corner of a coded recipe card clinging to it like a confession.
Mara is done reacting. She is done apologizing. And she is done pretending her family’s kitchen magic is just a quirky nuisance. If someone is using the town’s systems to squeeze her into silence, she will do what she does best: feed people, listen hard, and follow the trail nobody else can smell.
With Cal Rowan walking a razor line between protecting his career and protecting Mara, and with the town’s gossip machine gearing up to paint her as the villain again, Mara has one shot to prove the closure threat is manufactured, the theft wasn’t random, and the murders were never accidents.
Because this time, the crumbs don’t lead to a petty killer.
They lead to the person who has been ‘cleaning up’ Maple Haven’s secrets for decades.
If Mara cannot pull the truth into the light, she will lose her diner, her future, and the last scraps of peace she fought to rebuild.
Follow the crumbs… if you dare.
Follow the Crumbs is Book 4 in The Griddlewitch Mysteries, a first-person culinary witch cozy mystery series packed with small-town secrets, found-family chaos, slow-burn romance, and deliciously twisty murder. Each book delivers a complete whodunit with an ongoing series thread.
Genre: Mystery
Now the Lucky Ladle is on the brink of being shut down after a sudden stack of fire code violations that feel less like safety and more like a hit job. The timing is too perfect. The accusations are too specific. And someone out there knows details about Mara’s back rooms that only a thief with access to her stolen recipe tin would know.
Then a body turns up near the old pier with one torn corner of a coded recipe card clinging to it like a confession.
Mara is done reacting. She is done apologizing. And she is done pretending her family’s kitchen magic is just a quirky nuisance. If someone is using the town’s systems to squeeze her into silence, she will do what she does best: feed people, listen hard, and follow the trail nobody else can smell.
With Cal Rowan walking a razor line between protecting his career and protecting Mara, and with the town’s gossip machine gearing up to paint her as the villain again, Mara has one shot to prove the closure threat is manufactured, the theft wasn’t random, and the murders were never accidents.
Because this time, the crumbs don’t lead to a petty killer.
They lead to the person who has been ‘cleaning up’ Maple Haven’s secrets for decades.
If Mara cannot pull the truth into the light, she will lose her diner, her future, and the last scraps of peace she fought to rebuild.
Follow the crumbs… if you dare.
Follow the Crumbs is Book 4 in The Griddlewitch Mysteries, a first-person culinary witch cozy mystery series packed with small-town secrets, found-family chaos, slow-burn romance, and deliciously twisty murder. Each book delivers a complete whodunit with an ongoing series thread.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Diana Beckett's Shortbread Trails and Shadow Deals