A pizza-shop owner and her sister make it their business to track down a killer.

When widowed Eleanor Swift is robbed at gunpoint of the day's take at A Slice of Delight—the shop she runs in Timber Ridge, N.C., with her much-divorced sister Maddy and their main deliveryman, college student Greg Hatcher—she gets no sympathy from Police Chief Kevin Hurley, whom she dated and dumped way back in high school. But things get much worse when Greg's no-good brother Wade is found dead in their kitchen and Kevin names the missing Greg his prime suspect. Greg had been wrangling with Wade over a large inheritance. Although the will left it evenly divided, Wade, spoiled by his mother, wanted the larger share. Greg's mother wants to see him hanged for the murder; the sisters, certain that he's innocent, focus on several other suspects, including an improbably urbane local crime boss and both of the brothers' girlfriends. On the domestic front, Eleanor, who still mourns her husband, is debating how to handle a swain who wants more than she can give, while Maddy is carrying on a romance with a lawyer. Despite their busy lives and the extreme annoyance of the police chief, they continue their sleuthing ways.

Cavender's second (A Slice of Murder, 2009) is a middle-of-the-road cozy featuring two pleasant sisters who get involved in some improbable situations.

The pseudonymous Cavender (Tim Myers) offers few surprises in his talky second mystery starring Timber Ridge, N.C., pizzeria owner Eleanor Swift (after 2009's A Slice of Murder). When someone bashes in the head of Wade Hatcher, the brother of Eleanor's best delivery guy, Greg Hatcher, with Eleanor's maple rolling pin in her pizzeria kitchen, it appears at first that Greg killed Wade, who was contesting their grandparents' will. Eleanor and her sister, Maddy, join forces to investigate after the local police chief, Kevin Hurley, who always knows how to ruffle Eleanor's feathers, doesn't do much. As the sisters pursue some sticky but somewhat predictable clues, their suspect list grows. Could the killer have been Greg's estranged girlfriend, Katy Johnson; ill-tempered Sandi Meadows, who was dating Wade; or Roger Henderson, Wade's boss, who claims Wade was stealing from his customers? Some readers might wish that Cavender had added a little more spice to his comfortable recipe of food, mystery, and smalltown vibes. (Aug.)