About the Book:
A routine cake delivery becomes a culinary nightmare when a small-town baker discovers her first client's dead body in this irresistible new mystery series.
It'll take more than a little sugar to convince folks Daphne Martin's freshly baked spice cake was not to blame for the mysterious death of town gossip Yodel Watson. Getting her new cake decorating business, Daphne's Delectable Cakes, off the ground is hard enough now that Daphne's moved back to her southern Virginia hometown, but orders have been even slower since she found Yodel's body. She soon realizes, however, that just about everybody in town had a reason to poison the cantankerous busybody, from the philandering pet shop owner, to Yodel's church potluck nemesis, to the Save-A-Buck's cranky produce manager-turned-bagger. Now, to help prove she's no confectionary killer, Daphne recruits her old flame, Ben Jacobs, editor of the local newspaper, and quickly stirs up a long-hidden family scandal that just might hold the secret ingredient she needs to solve the case. All she's got to do is roll up her sleeves and get her hands a little dirty before the real culprit decides that taking sweet revenge on Daphne will be icing on the cake.
About the Author:
Gayle Trent lives in Southwest Virginia with her husband and two beautiful children, a boy and a girl. She's a full-time writer/editor/mom/wife and chief cook and bottle washer, and she love every minute of it. Okay, not the bottle washing so much, but the rest of it is great.
My Opinion:
This is a "cozy" mystery so while there are dead people there is no gore. There is much to be said for a easy to read murder mystery now and again. This book combines one of my big loves, baking with murder.
Hmmm.
Daphne Martin has just moved back to her home town and opened a cake decorating business. She's left her husband after he tried to shoot her. Her mother feels that she should have stayed with this guy - he didn't actually KILL her after all. Obviously Daphne and her mother have issues.
While settling in and trying to get her business off the ground Daphne is also re-kindling her friendship with an old boyfriend. He helps her as she tries to solve the mystery of who killed Yodel Watson, the town gossip. She also learns some old family secrets that don't help her relationship with her mother.
Overall I enjoyed the book. The only aspect I found jarring was the breaking of the wall between the writer and the reader when Daphne gave out cake decorating tips. This is often done in these cozy mysteries but the expert, be it is cooking, knitting, baking or in this case cake decorating often dispenses their knowledge to another character. In this book the tips are often just written apropos of nothing and it was well, odd.
That mild complaint notwithstanding the book was a fun, light read and I would happily pick up another book in the series.
Murder Takes the Cake is available from Amazon.com
Disclosure: I received a copy of Murder Takes the Cake gratis from Gallery Publishing. Any opinions are my honest opinions and were not impacted by my receipt of the free book. I received no monetary compensation for this post.
2 comments:
I read this book right after I got it and then saved my review for today. It's funny, I don't even remember the cake decorating tips being to no one in particular. I would love to learn to decorate cakes but haven't really put much time into it. I like the name of your blog!
I love murder mysterious I would love to read this one! Added to the list :)
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