When a restaurant rivalry turns deadly in her coastal California town, Coffee, Books, and More owner Jill Gardner King must solve the murder before she can celebrate the New Year . . .

Turns out Jill will not be ringing in the New Year with her new husband, Greg, on a relaxing getaway in Mexico. Instead, an accident involving her store's manager keeps her in South Cove, where she finds a competition heating up—to a deadly degree—for a local restaurant to win a float appearance at the New Year's Parade.

Lille Stanley, the not-so-beloved proprietor of the town's beloved diner, Diamond Lille's, is going head-to-head with a hot new soup shop. But when its owner's husband is found dead, clutching a secret recipe from Diamond Lille's, the diner diva finds herself deep in the soup. Now it's up to Jill to make sure justice is ladled out to the real killer—before Lille goes from behind the counter to behind bars . . .