Mary Lee Ashford Books In Order

Publication Order of A Sugar & Spice Mystery Books

Mary Lee Ashford is a published author and half of a writing team that makes up Sparkle Abbey, writer of the Pampered Pets series.

Before she was published, this writer had some success in writing contests and even placed first in the Daphne du Maurier competition.

She is also the founding president of the Iowan chapter of Sisters in Crime. She is also a board member of the Midwest chapter of the M.W.A., belongs to Novelists, Inc., as well as a chapter of the writing group ‘Kiss of Death’, and Guppies, a group on the Internet.

She really enjoys giving other writers encouragement when it comes to their writing. Ashford also presents on a regular basis in different groups for writers. She has a great interest and passion for creativity and being creative. She also teaches Creative Management course on the university level. She also blogs about the topic of creativity and presents various workshops on writing.

Mary Lee is married to Tim, her husband. She lives out in the Midwest area of the United States. She also spends time with her rescue cat, who is named “Sparkle”. She loves reading as well as being with her children and grandchildren.

Mary Lee Ashford created the Sugar and Spice fictional series of novels and wrote the first novel in this series, Game of Scones. The debut cozy mystery story first became available to readers with its publication in 2018! The second book, Risky Biscuits, was published in 2019. If you have been looking for a fun mystery series that isn’t too dark or scary, this might be the perfect series for you!

Game of Scones is the first novel in the Sugar and Spice series! In this delightful debut, readers get the chance to meet the main character of Sugar Calloway.

Sugar is an appropriate name for this talented woman– however, it’s just a nickname! That’s what her friends call her, because her full name is Rosetta Sugarbaker Calloway. Try saying that three times fast! It’s a fitting nickname for her, because she really loves baking up wonderful confections that often contain a fair share of the sweet ingredient.

Sugar Calloway is a co-owner when it comes to the “Sugar and Spice” Cookbook series. She’s always been entranced by the unexpected magic of cooking and has seen on her own how just a simple confection has the power to draw friends together.

She’s even seen desserts do the opposite and cause feuds with no end of fire. At the end of the day, the confections are just a reason to draw people together and people’s actions and intentions do the rest. They can be a force for good or just a reason to have people at the table together– even if it doesn’t always work out well.

Sugar has always found great satisfaction in her job working for a magazine as the food editor. However, Rosetta isn’t sure what to do when she loses the job and has to start over from scratch. It’s a tough spot to be in, but that’s the economy. Even though she certainly feels defeated, the last thing that Sugar really wants to do is take this setback and have it be total defeat.

She also doesn’t want to have to return to her hometown in the South with all of its small town gossip and talk. That would really be the worst. She’s pleasantly surprised when she finds out that she’s in the midst of a great opportunity. She could launch a local business of writing cookbooks with Dixie Spicer, a local baker in town that has won blue ribbons.

The idea is certainly an interesting one. All that she’d like to do is start over, and this is a real chance to do this. Sugar agrees to collaborate with Dixie and hopes that things will begin in a positive fashion. After all, she doesn’t want any more surprises to come her way anytime soon after the last one!

Sugar immediately gets busy doing what she can. She’s trying to get recipes together for the occasion of the centennial celebration. It isn’t too long before Sugar is taking on way more than just coming up with recipes and curating them. She has no idea that coming down the line is a bunch of strange threats, scandals that are hotter than hot, and the grand finale of murder.

The corpse ends up belonging to the matriarch of the first family in town. She may have been moody, so there may have been more than one individual out there with the motivation as well as the motive to kill her. Sugar must team up with Spice and do whatever they can to figure out who’s behind this murder.

Tensions in town have truly never been higher. Can they get to the bottom of this whole thing before someone else is killed? Or worse, an innocent person is accused of doing something that they actually didn’t do?

With the person behind all of this still out there, and possibly getting ready to take out someone else, can the baking specialists put the confection making and cookbook writing on hold long enough to catch a killer? Pick up this book to find out!

If you enjoyed the entertaining events of the first mystery, then you will likely really enjoy Risky Biscuits! This fun sequel features main character of ‘Sugar’ Calloway once more in a mystery book that also includes recipes like the first does!

Sugar has been pivoting in her professional life ever since she lost her job, but sometimes twists of fate can be just so sweet.

She’s back on her feet with the help of baker and friend Dixie Spicer, who’s known for her blue-ribbon baking. Together they’re in business publishing community cookbooks while solving cases on the side.

Yet another murder in their small town is coming their way– will these two be ready? When another local is discovered dead, the baking pair must figure out who is murdering people they care about.

When the local ‘bad boy’ returns, gossip goes crazy. Someone out there wanted someone dead– was it Nick or someone else? Pick up this book to find out!