Kill ’em with Cayenne

In Oust’s tasty sequel to 2013’s Rosemary and Crime, the annual Brandywine Creek, Ga., barbecue festival is a boom time for Spice It Up!, the shop of fresh and exotic spices of divorced mom Piper Prescott. The return of Brandywine native Barbara Bunker Quinlan, who hosts a new show on the Cooking Network, adds an unexpected jolt to the festival. With a chip on her shoulder and scores to settle, Quinlan immediately clashes with attractive Becca Dapkins, who has already clashed with Maybelle Humphries, manager of the town’s chamber of commerce, whose boyfriend Becca stole. When Piper finds Becca under an azalea bush, bludgeoned to death with a frozen brisket, police chief Wyatt McBride views Maybelle as his prime suspect. Sleuthing takes a backseat to such relationship difficulties as Piper’s attraction to dangerously handsome Wyatt and her 16-year-old daughter Lindsey’s infatuation with an older boy. Plenty of spice lore adds flavor to this amiable mystery. Agent: Jessica Faust, BooksEnds. (Dec.)