Pudding Up With Murder by Julia Buckley

She's at an expensive home with her boyfriend's mother.  The mother took a rice pudding dessert to the family birthday party.  Lilah made the dessert but the mother is taking credit for it.  When the birthday boy who is the patriarch of the family walks in the kitchen and tells them he loved the pudding, the next thing he does is fall over dead!  Not again...

Berkley and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published September 5th.

Lilah met her boyfriend during a murder investigation and she would like to avoid getting involved in another one.  But he ate part of her pudding cake.  He also had a drink.  It appears he was poisoned so she anxiously waits for the results.  It was in the drink.  He was allergic to nuts and a ground up one was added to his drink.

This man has a lot of money and a lot of children.  Did one of them kill him?  As Lilah picks at the pieces of the puzzle, her boyfriend is investigating the case.  What she finds out helps him.  But neither one of them knew who or how many illegitimate children he had.  

This was a good mystery with several twists and a dysfunctional family at the core.  I actually felt sorry for the killer.  (That doesn't usually happen!)  Ms. Buckley doesn't give enough away to make you guess the killer ahead of time and I like that a lot.  I'd read more in this series.  Plus there are recipes in the book so you can make the desserts, too.