Bake Offed (A Five-Ingredient Mystery Book 8)

Author:    Maya Corrigan

Genre:     Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book

ISBN #:    9781496734570

Kensington Publishing

304 Pages

$8.99; $6.99 Amazon

November 29, 2022

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

When the Deadly Desserts Bake-Off lives up to its name, Val and Granddad turn up the heat on a killer...

The Maryland Mystery Fan Fest sounds like exactly the fun getaway café manager Val Deniston and her grandfather could use.  Granddad will even compete in a dessert competition in which contestants assume the roles of cooks to famous fictional sleuths.  Playing Nero Wolfe's gourmet cook Fritz is an exciting challenge for Granddad.  A restaurant manager is playing Lord Peter Wimsey's valet and cook Bunter.  But Granddad is steamed to learn who will be playing Sherlock Holmes's landlady, Mrs. Hudson -- his nemesis Cynthia Sweet, who he believes ripped off his five-ingredient theme from his column "Codger Cook" to use in her own recipe column.

Apparently, he isn't the only one who has a beef with his not-so-sweet competitor.  When she's found dead in her room with the teakettle whistling, it's up to Val and her grandfather to sort through the festival goers to find out who was most definitely not a fan of Cynthia Sweet...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Val Deniston and her grandfather Don Myers are attending the Maryland Mystery Fan Fest; Don as a contestant in a dessert contest, and Val as a volunteer to go where needed.  When they receive their welcome packages, Granddad receives a note that seems ominous, and they both wonder if they need to keep an eye on Cynthia Sweet, who has a history of not being so sweet at all.

At night after a full day, Val hears a teakettle whistling, and gets the security guard to open Cynthia's door, where they find her dead.  At first it seems an accident, but then is discovered to be a murder by the police.  Now Val feels she needs to do a little research to find out who had a real grudge against the woman -- enough to kill...

This is the eighth book in the series and I have read them all.  I will admit that at first it started out slower than the previous books, but then reading on, I began to see that it is much different.  This book is almost like those old classic movies where someone in a dark house is murdered, and then the rest of the guests staying there are all suspects; finally, the protagonist discovers the murderer.  Yes, it is just like that.

The 'guests' in this story are people that are attending the fest.  There are several that might have a grudge against the dead woman, and yet all of them seem to have alibis (such as in a movie).  Now it is up to Val and Granddad to disprove the alibis -- at least of one of the guests; the murderer.

It's a fun tale that keeps you wrapped up in the story, and working right alongside Val to figure out who the killer might be.  With red herrings everywhere, and so many people to talk to, you need to keep an eye on the prize: who the killer might be.  And when it's finally discovered, it's strange enough to be true, and sad enough to make you wonder what goes through a killer's mind.

As always, Ms. Corrigan weaves a tidy tale that has has enough action and sifting through peoples' statements to finally come to a completely satisfying end.  I look forward to the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

I received an advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.

https://www.amazon.com/Bake-Offed-Five-Ingredient-Mystery-Book-ebook/dp/B09TWZVNX7/ref

Goodreads:    https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4829483044

More on Maya Corrigan's Books:    https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/maya-corrigan/

Gingerdead Man A Five-Ingredient Mystery #7)

Author:  Maya Corrigan

Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book

ISBN #:  9781496722447

Kensington Publishing

304 Pages

$7.99; $6.99 Amazon

September 29, 2020

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This holiday season Bayport, Maryland, is a dead ringer for Victorian London.  Val and her grandfather are taking part in the Dickens of a Holiday festival.  Val is hosting a private tea party serving the festival's costumed volunteers, who range from Dickens divas like Madame Defarge and Miss Havisham to Ebenezer Scrooge and old St. Nick himself.

But one costumed reveler may have gotten the holidays mixed up.  The winner of the creepiest outfit, robed in black with a gift bag covering the head -- okay, the Ghost of Christmas Present, Val gets it -- hands out gingerbread men with icing skeleton bones.  This year's sour Santa has none of the big fellow's mirth but plenty of his appetite, and it's no secret Santa loves cookies.  But when the man in red turns blue, Val and Granddad have a cookie-cutter killer to catch before the New Year...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Val Deniston runs the Cool Down Café at the local health club, but tonight she's dressed in Victorian clothing and helping with a tea set out by her assistant Irene.  It's for the volunteers who have been helping at the Dickens of a Holiday festival, and there are six people attending.  One of them is a recent resident who's taken over her grandfather Don's job as the Santa, which he does every year, and it isn't making Don happy.  Don's been relegated to play Ebenezer Scrooge, and he's right in character whenever he sees the man playing Santa - Jake Smith.

At the dinner, Jake's wife and Mrs. Claus, Jewel, are the center of attention.  It seems Santa has had too much to drink and she's trying to get him to quiet down.  But the action changes when someone enters the back of the bookshop where they're having their private tea in the CAT room -- dressed all in black with a gift bag on their head and distributes gift bags to each person and then leaves without saying a word.  While everyone else is stunned, Jake is delighted to find the bag contains a gingerdead man -- a gingerbread cookie dressed like a skeleton, and he eats his, lauding the wonderful taste.  But seconds later he falls over and later dies.

But things don't end there: Val is catering a private birthday party for a resident, and there's trouble in the home while she's there.  When she leaves, she thinks that will be the end of it -- but it's not.  Not only does she find something else to worry about, her best friend is soon brought into the mix, and everyone thinks a serial killer is on the loose.  Now Val and her grandfather will have to do some fancy footwork and dig deep to find out who killed Santa and why.  If they don't figure it out, no one will be having a Merry Christmas...

This is the latest book in the series, and I am liking it better with each one.  This time out it's nearing Christmas, and Val is busy catering small parties and running the café, while also volunteering at the Dickens festival.  It's a busy time of the year, and she and her grandfather both have their hands full.  But when the Santa dies after eating the cookie, neither she nor Don think it was natural causes.  After it's confirmed, they want to know who wanted to kill him, and start investigating on their own.

But when Val has problems at her latest catering gig, it soon leads to even more problems, and she needs to figure out a way to counter it.  (I am loath to mention more, because this is a new book, and I don't want to give away any spoilers -- so I won't).

What I do like about this series is the reference to classic movies, which, as I have stated many times over, is my other passion besides books.  There probably isn't a classic I haven't seen or can't quote a line from.  It gives me even more pleasure when I read the books (and everyone should watch the movies referenced).

I am beginning to like Don more and more; he's learning things all the time and not withering away into a grouchy old man, and I love that.  Val is entering a new chapter of her life, too, and both of these things keep the series fresh and moving along.  They both keep their lives moving forward, and I enjoy reading about their latest ventures.

This tale is very good, with the mystery taking forefront, and adding a bit of tension along the way; it keeps the reader interested throughout the story and wondering what will happen next.  The red herrings are thrown out, with clues leading back and forth, and eventually the killer is found, but it was almost a surprise to me, and that was entirely delightful.  In the end, it was probably one of the most fun books I've read in awhile, and I really wish I could read the next one right away.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Gingerdead-Five-Ingredient-Mystery-Maya-Corrigan/dp/1496722442/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3529977438

More on Maya Corrigan's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/maya-corrigan/

Crypt Suzette (A Five-Ingredient Mystery Book 6)

Author:  Maya Corrigan
Genre:   Mystery

Hardcover (LP); Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781432869274; 9781496722423
Kensington Publishing
288 Pages
$30.99; $7.99; $6.99 Amazon
August 27, 2019

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Suzette Cripps has been occupying a spare bedroom at Val's granddad's house while she takes classes in this Maryland Eastern Shore town -- but she's always seemed a little secretive and fearful, and any talk about her past is a closed book.

After winning the costume contest at the Halloween-themed bookstore party, Suzette is mowed down by a hit-and-run driver -- and Val and her grandfather start to wonder whether it was really an accident of ir someone was after Suzette.  Granddad is a little distracted by his new enterprise as a ghost-buster, but as Val talks to Suzette's coworkers and fellow creative writing students, she grows more convinced that the dead woman's demons weren't imaginary -- and that she needs to rip the mask off a killer...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽ 

Val Deniston runs the Cool Down Cafe at the local health club, and also has side jobs catering small events.  When she's hired to cater a Halloween-themed party at a new bookstore, her grandfather's tenant, Suzanne Cripps, mentions how she'd like to enter.  But Val doesn't expect the entrants to be at each other's throats before the contest, nor that the next morning Suzette will be mowed down by a car and die.  While the chief of police think it was a mere accident, Val starts looking at Suzette's past and she's not so sure.  With the help of her grandfather, Val starts digging into the suspects, and discovers that more than one person could have had a motive; but Suzette was a decent person who didn't deserve her fate, and Val is determined to see someone pay for the crime...

I have to say that when I first started reading this book, one name in particular struck out at me.  Being a huge classic film fan (I own thousands of them), I was later happy to see that I wasn't the only one in the book who noticed it, and where it was from.  But I will say no more on that subject, since I don't want to ruin the book for others who might not know until it's pointed out.

That being said, I really enjoyed the book.  When I first started reading this series, I wasn't impressed.  But I'm glad that I stuck with it, since both Val's grandfather Don and Val herself have been growing throughout the series.  I am impressed at how far Don has come, and finally showing his granddaughter how much he loves and appreciates her; and that Val's bitterness toward what was her life has turned into happiness at what her life has become.  These are good things in a book.

But back to the plot: after Suzanne is killed, Val and her grandfather want to know why.  They start researching the people she worked with in her job as a hotel clerk, and also her co-writers in a writers' group.  What Val finds is disturbing on both counts.  But without any evidence, police chief Earl Yardley isn't going to go along with it, stating that it was probably an accident.

But along with that, Don has been hired to find out why things are missing from his clients' homes, and the person who owns the Title Wave bookstore, Dorothy Muir, is an old friend of Don's, but the same can't be said of her son, Bram.  He doesn't like the idea of hiring a caterer, and he seems harsh and stolid.  But is that because of his personality, or because he doesn't understand how small towns work?  At any rate, Val is about to find out.

When it becomes apparent that there's more to Suzanne's past that leads them to the point they now are, Val figures it out eventually, and when she does, it comes to a nice conclusion that wasn't really expected.  While rather sad at points, there's no reason for taking a life, and the ending leaves us looking forward to the next in the series.  I really enjoyed how all the threads eventually came together, and I do like the fact that Val never puts herself in harms' way (at least intentionally); and yet she manages to get to the bottom of things.  I also have to say that I'm glad the way the series is going and looking forward to reading the next one soon.

https://www.amazon.com/Crypt-Suzette-Five-Ingredient-Mystery-Corrigan/dp/1496722426/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3526740107

More on Maya Corrigan's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/maya-corrigan/

By Cook or By Crook (A Five-Ingredient Mystery #1)

Author: Maya Corrigan
Genre:   Mystery

Hardcover (LP); Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  978161731389
Kensington Publishing
320 Pages
$26/99;  $7.99; $4.99 Amazon
November 4, 2014

✮✮✮✮

Take one burned-out city girl.  Add a crusty codger, a pinch of gossip, and a dash of romance.  Stir in a generous helping of murder and you've got the ingredients for one truly delicious mystery...

Haunted by the car accident that ended her career as a cookbook publicist, Val Deniston has traded in the chaos of New York City for a quieter life near the Chesapeake Bay.  Living with her curmudgeonly grandfather in the tourist town of Bayport is hardly glamorous, but she enjoys working at the Cool Down Café at the local fitness club, and she finally has time to work on her long-planned cookbook.  But when one of the club's patrons is found dead, she'll have to cook up a scheme to find the killer.  As the number of suspects rises, like crabs in a bucket, it's out of the pan and into the fire for Val.  If she can't find the culprit soon, she might as well be chum in the water...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Val Deniston has returned to Bayport, Maine, to live with her uncle and run the café at the local fitness club.  She's settling into her new life after a tragic accident left her with no memory of the night it occurred.  She's gaining new friends and working on creating a cookbook in her spare time.

Her grandfather is a crusty curmudgeon who, though gruff on the outside, loves his granddaughter.  He's also suddenly mysteriously interested in learning to cook, although his specialty might be trying to burn down their old Victorian home.  Still, Val is willing to teach him (as long as there are no more than five ingredients as he tells her); although she wonders why the sudden interest.

She's also given an opportunity that might never come again: one of the club's members, Nadia Westrin, has offered her the chance to cater the club's big party, and she's not one to turn down something this plum.  The only problem is her cousin Monique.  Monique's husband Maverick has had a recent affair with Nadia, and Val doesn't want to get involved.  But now it seems she'll have to stay on Nadia's good side, and part of that is when Nadia asks her for a ride home she agrees.  However, when they arrive, there's an old wooden tennis racket burning from a tree in Nadia's yard.

Even though Val tells Nadia she should call the police, Nadia refuses, telling her she knows who did it.  And when Val arrives at Nadia's a few days later to go over the proposed menu for the party, she finds the woman dead - in a most gruesome way.  Now the police chief has asked her not to reveal it, and not to answer any questions regarding the murder.  But when Monique becomes the prime suspect, she wants Val to look into the murder and find the real killer.  But will doing so put her life in jeopardy, and will she be able to find the truth or will she wind up the next victim?...

While this is an older book, I'm very glad I took a chance on it.  Val Deniston is a rare bird in the cozy genre: she doesn't walk up and accuse people outright of murder, she doesn't overtly question them about the murder, and she doesn't walk into dangerous situations without  thinking of the consequences.  

While she does question people, she does it under the guise of writing a memorial about Nadia for the club's newsletter.  There's nothing in her questioning to make people suspicious, (or they shouldn't be), and she's not so stupid as to walk out into her yard in the dark when she hears noises at night.

I also love the fact that she doesn't withhold information from the police.  The police chief is a friend of her family's, so he doesn't treat her like the enemy, and when she garners a piece of information she thinks is valuable, she shares it, and even if he thinks it's not, he still listens to her, althought it did bother me that the rest of the police force acted like she was hallucinating and treating her like she'd done things wrong.

Val is a wonderful character, and I'm glad I got the chance to know her.  While there were a couple of things that I didn't like - I felt that both her grandfather and her cousin were a tad selfish in their own wants instead of thinking about Val - and I didn't like the fact that she never confronted Chatty, who was actually committing fraud. 

I'm still on the fence about Gunnar; while I'm glad he was there for Val all the way, I can't see an accountant becoming an actor.  (Not that there's anything wrong with it, but it seems the life he's lived was a bit more exciting than waiting around for an agent's call that he got a bit part); and also about her grandfather.  While he obviously cares for her, he's secretive and it turns out he actually steals her recipes and passes them off as his own.  His reason for doing this doesn't hold water.  He can't boil water without her help, yet when people start congratulating him, he doesn't even mention how helpful she's been and what a wonderful cook she is - he doesn't even say that they developed the recipes together!  This doesn't endear him to me.  I get why he does it, but I don't think it's right.  He's just a little too curmudgeonly toward her.  She shows her love by giving him a very nice gift, and this is what he does to repay her.

Other than this, I found the book to be delightful.  The plot was intriguing, and even though the clues were there, we discovered them right about the same time as Val, and that was a good thing.  The murderer came as a surprise, which was also nice, and I felt that the writing was very well done, making for an enjoyable read all around.  I've discovered a new author, and I hope this series goes on for a very long time.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Cook-Crook-Five-Ingredient-Mystery/dp/1617731382/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2819870479

More on Maya Corrigan's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/maya-corrigan/

Murder at Barclay Meadow

Author:  Wendy Sand Eckel
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; ebook
ISBN #:  9781250058607
Minotaur Books
320 Pages
$13.48 Amazon; $12.99 ebook
July 28, 2015

Five Stars

Rosalie Hart's world has been upended.  After her husband confesses to an affair, she exiles herself to her late aunt's farmhouse on Maryland's Eastern Shore.  With its fields untended and the house itself in disrepair, Barclay Meadow couldn't be more different than the tidy D.C. suburb she used to call home.  Just when Rosalie feels convinced things couldn't get any worse, she finds a body floating in her marsh grasses.  When the sheriff declares the death an accident, she becomes suspicious.  The dead girl, Megan, reminds her of her own daughter, who has recently gone off to college, and she feels a responsibility to find out the truth.

Rosalie confides her doubts to her friends in her creative writing class, and they ask to join her investigation, beginning in earnest.  Meanwhile, Rosalie works on restoring Barclay Meadow to its former glory - with the help from the rugged Tyler Wells, a farmer who once leased the land.  When Rosalie discovers her aunt's favorite bread recipe on a yellowed index card, she begins baking, and with her deep love for nourishing others rekindled, she starts to feel alive again.  But as she zeroes in on the truth about what happened to Megan, she begins getting ominous threats.  Determined to get justice for Megan and protect the new home she's begun to build for herself, Rosalie races to catch the killer in this deftly plotted and heartwarming debut.             

********

Rosalie Hart has just discovered her husband Ed is having an affair, and told her he's in love with the woman, so Rosalie moved out and headed off to the Maryland Shore for Barclay Meadow, the farm her Aunt Charlotte left to her in her will.

But all is not well.  She steps outside her house one afternoon and notices something in the nearby water - that something appears to be a dead body.  She calls the sheriff and after a few questions and the removal of the body, it is ruled a suicide.  But Rosalie knows it was something else - why would the girl kill herself in a nice dress and wearing a backpack?  When she suggests the same to the sheriff, he becomes belligerent - no, angry - with her and tells her to leave it alone and get on with her life.  She soon learns the girl's name was Megan, a student at the local college.

But Rosalie thinks she owes it to the girl to find out who killed her, the reason being she has a daughter, Annie, about the same age as Megan, and can't leave it alone.  So she attends Megan's funeral, and after talking with one of the attendees, Rhonda, her suspicions are growing.

So Rosalie joins a creative writing class but can't think of anything to write.  She makes friends with three of the students - Sue Ling, Tony Ricci, and Glenn, who find out her dilemma and think that they should investigate the drowning and prove it was murder.  

But how to go about it?  They can't let anyone know what they are doing, because the sheriff has taken an unreasonable dislike to Rosalie and threatens her every chance he gets, so she vows to stay out of his way.  Yet they make a list of suspects and try to figure out ways to decide which one of them committed the murder, knowing that because of where Megan was found, the killer must be close by.  And Rosalie knows that if someone killed once and gets away with it, there is a possibility they will kill again.

She also finds out that her husband Ed has frozen all her accounts and she has to figure out a way to stay on the farm without an income.  But there is a guardian angel - sort of.  A hunky farmer/handyman named Tyler shows up at her door and tells her he has farmed the land for years for Charlotte and will do the same for her - all she needs to do is accept the check he gives her and he gets to keep all the profits from the crops.  As a temporary fix, it will work, but Rosalie needs to find a way to make more money.

To add to her problems, her daughter Annie wants her to get back with Ed, never mind the fact that he has moved his new love Rebecca into her home and obviously isn't interested in a reunion, and Rosalie doesn't know what to do help her.  And Tyler is very secretive about his life, showing up ever day to work and helping himself to coffee in her kitchen throughout the day - but keeping mum about his private life and past.

But again back to the murder - Rosalie and her friends have split up duties - Sue is using the internet (including Facebook - like it or not, it's a big part of today's culture) to find answers, Glenn is keeping close to Lila, who works for the sheriff, and Tony is helping Rosalie do "recon" work when needed.  But the closer she gets to the truth, the more threatening the sheriff gets to her, which only fuels her belief that Megan was murdered, and there seems to be a cover up, and Sheriff Wilgus might be a part of it.

This is the first mystery from Ms. Eckel, and she has a welcome voice in the mystery writing community.  The writing is crisp, the plot tight.  Even though there are actually many subplots occurring within the solving of Megan's murder, Ms. Eckel manages to make it all work and keep it interesting throughout the book.  Everything flowed; everything was believable.  There were no outlandish situations (I never once had to say to myself, 'yeah, that would happen in real life,') and that is a huge plus in this novel.  It also takes place over several months - the mystery isn't solved in a week or two.  It's not your typical cozy; the characters are three-dimensional and you can immerse yourself in their lives as you read.  The ending completely satisfying, and I enjoyed spending time with Rosalie and the people who surround her.  Mystery lovers should enjoy this book.  Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-at-Barclay-Meadow-Mystery/dp/1250058600/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1348931049