Mary Lee Ashford

Mary Lee Ashford is a lifelong bibliophile, an avid reader, and supporter of public libraries. In addition to writing the Sugar and Spice series for Kensington Books, she also writes as half of the writing team of Sparkle Abbey, author of the national bestselling Pampered Pets mystery series from Bell Bridge Books.

Prior to publishing Mary Lee won first place in the Daphne du Maurier contest, sponsored by the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA, and was a finalist in Murder in the Grove’s mystery contest, as well as Killer Nashville’s Claymore Dagger contest.

She is the founding president of Sisters in Crime – Iowa and a board member of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest chapter, as well as a member of Novelists, Inc., Romance Writers of America, Kiss of Death the RWA Mystery Suspense chapter, Sisters in Crime, and the SinC internet group Guppies.

She loves encouraging writers and is a frequent lecturer and workshop presenter for writers’ groups. Mary Lee has a passionate interest in creativity and teaches a university level course in Creative Management to MPA candidates, as well as presenting workshops and blogging about creativity.

She currently resides in the midwest with her husband, Tim, and Sparkle, the rescue cat namesake of the Sparkle Abbey pseudonym. Her delights are reading and enjoying her two sons and daughter-in-laws, and six grandchildren.

For more information, visit her website at: www.MaryLeeAshford.com

Night of the Living Bread (Sugar & Spice Mysteries Book 4)

Night of the Living Bread (Sugar & Spice Mysteries Book 4)

Sugar Calloway and Dixie Spicer are up to their aprons in community cookbook projects, but Sugar can't resist when the Jameson County Historical Society asks for their assistance with a cookbook featuring bread recipes. But they’ve barely begun when suddenly troubles are on the rise. Marla, the board’s president is stabbed with a bread knife, her best friend, Mame, is a suspect & some dough (of the money kind) is missing.

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Game of Scones (Sugar & Spice Mysteries Book 1)

Game of Scones (Sugar & Spice Mysteries Book 1)

At Sugar & Spice Community Cookbooks, business is flatter than a fritter and so Sugar and Spice are thrilled when the local Founders Club hires them to assemble a collection of old-time recipes for the town's upcoming bicentennial celebration. It’s Recipe Wars in small town St. Ignatius and the town’s rival bed & breakfast owners, one of them Spice’s aunt, end up in a food fight over who has the best scones. The situation heats up and when things turn deadly, Sugar and Spice have to cook-up a scheme to find the killer before the town council votes to scrap their cookbook deal.

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Risky Biscuits (Sugar & Spice Mysteries Book 2)

Risky Biscuits (Sugar & Spice Mysteries Book 2)

Former magazine editor Sugar Calloway's life has taken a delicious twist since she launched a community cookbook publishing business with blue-ribbon baker Dixie Spicer. Now these amateur sleuths must solve a small-town murder without getting burned.

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Quiche of Death (Sugar & Spice Mysteries Book 3)

Quiche of Death (Sugar & Spice Mysteries Book 3)

“Ms. Ashford was so many steps ahead of me in QUICHE OF DEATH that I didn’t think I’d ever figure it out. And, I didn’t. This author is brilliant at leading you into one direction while she’s finding two or three more other wrong turns to send you down. Seriously, bring your GPS!” —Lisa K’s Book Reviews

At Sugar & Spice Community Cookbooks, the friends and business partners have secured a tasty new commission: producing a cookbook for the Arbor family. The Arbors have made their fortune in quiches, and Sugar and Spice have been invited to a weekend gathering where all the siblings, along with crusty matriarch Marta, will be in attendance. But it’s soon clear that this trip will come with a hefty slice of drama.

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