"Footprints in the Sand" (William Morrow), by Mary Jane Clark

Piper Donovan, the heroine of a mystery series by Mary Jane Clark, is fearless and inquisitive, and this trait often puts her in danger. In "Footprints in the Sand," the latest in the series, she finds herself in a particularly lethal situation.

She isn't a professional sleuth. A struggling actress, Piper designs wedding cakes part time in her mother's New Jersey bakery. And every time she bakes a cake, she somehow ends up having a close encounter with a murderer.