A street party on a hot summer evening takes a deadly turn when one of the revellers dies, apparently from food poisoning. But there's more to the death than first meets the eye, and the five R&P Labs staff members find themselves drawn into a case of love, loathing and lemon meringue pie.

'Halfbaked' is a short story of about 16,500 words. It also appears in the collection 'Four by Five' and introduced Zukie Merlino, who then insisted on being featured in her own full-length novels.