Maymee Bell Books in Order

Maymee Bell is the pen name of Kentucky cozy mystery writer Tonya Kappes. Under the Bell name, she created the Southern Cake Baker mysteries, a short series built around pastry chef Sophia Cummings, a Kentucky hometown, and the trouble that can arrive just as dessert is being served.

Kappes grew up in a small rural Kentucky town, and Kentucky remains at the center of much of her fiction. Her books often return to close-knit communities, local routines, family ties, and neighbors who know both the good news and the gossip before breakfast.

Before writing full-time, she earned an elementary education degree from the University of Kentucky and became certified as a child therapist. That practical background shows up in her interest in people, especially characters trying to sort out messy lives while keeping their sense of humor.

Her route to books was not the usual one. Kappes has said that she disliked reading as a child and did not become a regular reader until she was well into her thirties, when a book club helped her see how reading could offer a break from everyday pressures.

Then she started writing in the small pockets of time available to a busy parent. She wrote her first book under an oak tree while waiting for her son at peewee football practice, and that early effort eventually found a publisher.

The Maymee Bell name has a family connection. Kappes chose it as a variation on her grandmother Mamie's name when she began the Southern Cake Baker books, which are straightforward cozy mysteries rather than the paranormal-tinged stories she had often written before.

In Cake and Punishment, Sophia comes home to Rumford, Kentucky, after a painful breakup and quickly lands in the middle of a country-club murder while baking a wedding cake. Batter Off Dead finds her running For Goodness Cakes and facing another murder at a library fundraiser. The books keep the stakes personal: Sophia wants to protect friends, make a go of her work, and figure out whether home is where she belongs.

Kappes's wider bibliography includes series such as the Camper and Criminals books, beginning with Beaches, Bungalows & Burglaries. Across her work, readers can expect amateur sleuths, Southern settings, friendship groups, food, and everyday responsibilities that do not pause just because a crime needs solving.

Today, Kappes writes full-time and has described working from her camper. She also enjoys meeting readers at events, including a yearly mystery-themed train weekend. The through line is simple: she writes mysteries meant to feel like a friendly escape, with a little mischief mixed in.