Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780425251478
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$7.99; $7.99 Amazon
August 7, 2012
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Winter is big business in small-town Snowflake, Vermont. Tourists arrive to hit the ski slopes - and what could be more satisfying after a chilly day of carving powder than a steaming bowl of soup?
When Lucky Jamieson inherits her parents' soup shop, By the Spoonful, she realizes it's time to take stock of her life. Should she sell her parents' house or move in herself? Does she really want to run a restaurant business? And what about her grandfather Jack, who seems to be showing signs of Alzheimer's?
But her decisions are moved to the back burner after an icy blonde tourist is found frozen to death behind the soup shop, and Lucky is bowled over when her soup chef, Sage DuBois, is led out of the kitchen by the police. As suspicion and speculations snowball, Lucky decides that the only way to save her employee and her business is to find out herself who iced the tourist -- and landed her chef in the soup...
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I decided to choose this book because it has a slightly different premise - the protagonist owns a soup shop - and I thought it would be interesting. It wasn't. In fact, I don't understand how it got five star ratings when there was so much wrong with this book.
First, she's afraid to lose her 'wonderful chef'. Really? Let's be honest, shall we? You don't need to be trained at a culinary school to make soup. It's not that difficult, unless you're making Bouillabaisse or something similar. None of these soups are in that category (and none of them are interesting enough to make, either). Let's face it, he could be replaced with anyone's grandmother. Plus there's the fact that all she serves other than soup is sandwiches, and we're supposed to believe that this is a successful business. Anyway...
Then the police just 'prop' the dead woman against a dumpster so the doctor can look at her. Say what? He's going to examine her in the snow? Doesn't this town have an ambulance? A morgue? I guess if you die here in the winter they just throw you outside and prop you against a tree or something. Why not? You'll freeze in no time!
Then she hounds a realtor until she gets a key to the dead woman's home. The realtor tells her not to tell anyone, so what does she do? Tells the first person she sees! Can you say "Go ahead, lose your license, I don't care". Plus when she worms information out of people and is asked to keep it secret, what does she do? You guessed it - she tells someone else and asks them to keep it secret. What kind of person is she?
She cleans up a crime scene, and even gets her grandfather's help in stealing police keys in order to look at the evidence they have against Sage. Um, those are criminal actions and she can be prosecuted. But does that happen? No. She confronts people outright and asks them if they were sleeping with the woman or if they killed her. She's certifiable, and doesn't care who she hurts or tells things to as long as she gets what she wants. Man, she should have stayed in Madison and left this town alone.
Then there are things that don't make sense: She wants to sell her parents' home because she doesn't want to pay a mortgage (but is paying rent at an apartment); doesn't want to fix up the home (but is fixing up her apartment). She's an idiot. Why doesn't she keep the house and just have her grandfather move in with her? It would make more sense. (Then the little things like a reporter getting her name completely wrong - not likely).
Not to mention what kind of people are in this town? They take advantage of her by eating at the restaurant for free but when a body is found outside behind the restaurant, not inside, they won't eat there anymore so she can stay open? Guess they'll have to find another restaurant to leech off of. She's dumber than a box of rocks if she forgives any of them. Gee, I guess if someone was killed outside the bank these people would go crazy because they wouldn't be able to get their money. This entire town is full of nutcases.
As you can see I'm no fan of this book, but since it's the first in the series I will cautiously wade into the next and see if it improves. If not - or if it's as bad as this one - I'm done with the series.
https://www.amazon.com/Spoonful-Murder-Soup-Lovers-Mystery/dp/0425251470/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2408869434
More on Connie Archer's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/connie-archer/
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