To Have and to Kill

This fluffy first in a promising new cozy series from bestseller Clark (Dying for Mercy) introduces 27-year-old, down-on-her-luck actress Piper Donovan. After a painful breakup and too few acting gigs in Manhattan, Piper has returned home to Hillwood, N.J., where she's assisting her mother, Terri, at the family bakery, the Icing on the Cupcake. Piper is pleased to be preparing the cake for the upcoming wedding of her friend Glenna Brooks, the star of A Little Rain Must Fall, a daytime soap opera that Piper appeared in before her character was killed off. An actual murder, the cyanide poisoning of one of Glenna's A Little Rain Must Fall co-stars and her former lover, Travis York, threatens to derail the wedding. After further dangerously sticky developments, Piper confronts the surprising killer. Piper having to deal with Terri's macular degeneration lends some emotional weight. (Jan.)