The Long Quiche Goodbye

Author: Avery Aames
Genre: Mystery

3 Stars

 

 

Charlotte Bessette, along with her cousin Matthew, are new proprietors of the Fromagerie Bessette (commonly known as The Cheese Shop) in Providence, Ohio.  They were given the shop by their French grandparents after the grandparents retired.  One night, during a cheese and wine tasting, someone is murdered right outside the shop, stabbed with one of Charlotte's prized olive-handled knives.  Standing over the body is Charlotte's grandmother, who has blood on her hands.  Now it's up to Charlotte to find the killer before her grandmother is put on trial for the crime.

 

A decent mystery, but: It is about a cheese shop owner - who doesn't make cheese. She gets all of her cheese from other places, and sells it. Okay. To me, that is like going to a bakery to buy cinnamon rolls and finding out they get them from Cinnabon. When I buy cheese from a specialty shop, I want to know they made the cheese. If not, I order directly online. It wouldn't be so bad if she at least labeled the cheese from where it is made, (all local places) but she doesn't.

And she has an awful lot of it. So much so, that all anyone eats is cheese or things made with cheese. People have 'events' and cater cheese. Really? She even makes a chicken and cheese 'sandwich' for her grandmother that consists of chicken, cheese and a cracker. But she calls it a sandwich. I'd call it chicken on crackers. (I was really surprised when her grandfather did barbeque and it wasn't cheese). It makes me wonder if these people have "bathroom problems," they eat so much of it. They have cheese dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This poor family. Why is it when a book like this is written everyone feels the need to eat only the product they sell? Loyalty to your product is one thing, insanity is something else.

And every business in town buys only the best - things imported from other countries. Nobody buys anything made in America, from what I can tell.

There is also supposed to be a maybe-romance there, but it didn't seem to draw me in at all. Charlotte and Jordan just don't seem to have a spark together, not in their banter, anyway. Nothing to keep me interested in any developments in that corner.

There's even a scene where a restaurant runs out of cheese (I guess they don't do inventory at the restaurant), and they ask Charlotte to send over ten pounds of cheese. (I guess no one has figured out where she buys her cheese and gets it there). They'd rather buy it from her and pay the markup price instead of dealing directly with the vendor. Very odd indeed.

www.amazon.com/Long-Quiche-Goodbye-CHEESE-MYSTERY/dp/0425235521