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Death by Chocolate Raspberry Scone–pirate gold
Death by Chocolate Raspberry Scone
By Sarah Graves
Ellie and Jake (Jacobia) are best friends and business partners in the Chocolate Moose, a small bakery in Eastport, Maine. Death by Chocolate Raspberry Scone finds the pair dealing with a complex web of murders in the middle of a sweltering summer and hectic tourist season. There isn’t a body, just an abandoned boat and a non-grieving widow left with three children and a mystery. Her husband has shown her an antique gold coin which is missing too.
On the home front, Jake’s large old house is bursting at the seams with extended family lined up outside the only bathroom. An expansion is not progressing according to schedule and winter is closing in.
Sharks play a huge role in this mystery from attacks on the investigators to the possibility that they are involved in several deaths or at least the “disposal” of the remains. A group of shark scientists are having a convention in the town, and Ellie has promised three dozen Chocolate Raspberry Scones. Ellie is a creative genius when it comes to her baking, but she has yet to perfect a recipe for this treat.
Jake’s sweet grandson Ephraim plays a big role in this cozy mystery. This four year old loves making music on a variety of noisy instruments from a kazoo to a toy trumpet, and this interest leads to a discovery that is critical to the plot.
Another intriguing character is Glenna LaFarge, known locally as the “witch of Walk Island.” Despite all the somewhat scary legends that have emerged around her, Ellie and Jake embark on one of many boating adventures in the book to confront Glenna and try to uncover some of the many secrets surrounding murders, a kidnapping and theft in the small tourist town. Jake and Ellie both show their daring and brave side as they track down the murderer. There is a fair amount of tension in this mystery, but there is also some humor sprinkled in as Jake knows how to laugh at herself and the crazy situations she finds herself in.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery, Fiction
Notes: 1. #7 in the Death by Chocolate Mystery Series, but could be read as a standalone.
2. Includes a recipe for a version of Chocolate Raspberry Scones. As a chocolate lover and a scone lover, this sounds very good.
Publication: April 23, 2024—Kensington
Memorable Lines:
…I still couldn’t make a sound past the jagged chunk of fright stuck in my throat. It was a shark, a ridiculously large one from what I could see of its dark shape moving under the water, still coming straight at us.
It’s another thing I’ve learned over the years: You can cry all you want, but it doesn’t fix anything; when you’re finished, you still have to get up and do something about whatever it is.
I got up and poured more coffee at the credenza near the door. The fancy contraption that brewed it looked complicated enough to refine uranium in.
Death by Chocolate Frosted Doughnut–explosive action
Death by Chocolate Frosted Doughnut
by Sarah Graves
Jake and Ellie continue to make delightful chocolate goodies at The Chocolate Moose when they are not being shot at, run off the road, or drowned. In Sarah Graves’ Death by Chocolate Frosted Doughnut, there is more than enough action, some strong female characters you will want to see survive, lots of suspects, and some confusing motives. I could relate more to the chocolate than the many nautical references which are, in fact, extremely important to the plot.
Jake lives in an old home bursting at the seams with extended family. Her sidekick Ellie is instrumental and often the leader in Jake’s dangerous investigations. As you read about the remote town of Eastport, Maine, where Jake put down roots twenty years before, you can understand why she decided to stay. As autumn closes in, the town is hosting the Eastport Pirate Festival which draws a huge tourist trade and, in this case, provides the perfect atmosphere for explosive action.
I would like to extend my thanks to Netgalley and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1.This is #3 in the Death by Chocolate Mystery Series, but the author does an excellent job of supporting the reader so that this book can be a standalone.
2. The book concludes with a recipe for Double-Chocolate Ginger Cookies, featuring chocolate chips, white chocolate, and crystallized ginger.
Publication: February 25, 2020—Kensington Books
Memorable Lines:
His face, furrowed and grooved by age and the outdoors, was like something you might find carved into an old tree trunk, and his grip had felt as tough as bark.
I took a gulp of my hot drink and felt the brandy molecules percolating through my collapsed brain cells, reviving them. Or at least making them dance around very happily indeed, which was enough for me at the moment.
She was an overbearing old fussbudget, our Bella, but she would have stepped in front of a freight train for any one of us.
Away with the Fairies–not a fairy tale
Away with the Fairies
by Kerry Greenwood
Away with the Fairies begins immediately with the discovery of Miss Lavender’s body in a fairytale setting. There are many possible suspects from the residents of the apartments to coworkers at the women’s magazine that Miss Lavender writes for. Maybe even a disgruntled reader who has solicited help from the magazine’s advice column.
In the midst of this complicated investigation, Lin Chung, Phryne Fisher’s Chinese lover, goes missing and it is up to Phryne to cross the cultural barriers set up by his family. She needs to find him and rescue him if needed.
Dot, Phryne’s assistant, and Bert and Cec, socialist taxi-drivers and part-time employees of Phryne, get major roles. We are also introduced to another interesting character, Li Pen, a Shao Lin monk and bodyguard of Lin Chung.
Away with Fairies is an interesting mystery, full of adventures and intrigue, set in 1928. Phryne, as always, is brave and defiant. The plot is complicated, and the book has a satisfying, but unexpected resolution.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Poisoned Pen Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Notes: #11 in the Phryne Fisher Mystery Series. This one would work as a standalone, but is probably more enjoyable if the reader has been previously exposed to the characters.
Publication: August 1, 2017—Poisoned Pen Press
Memorable Lines:
The case was breaking. She knew the feeling. The matter would be as obdurate as a big stone block for ages, utterly resisting all chipping and tapping. Then just when you were about to give up and take to it with a sledgehammer, it cracked into a lot of pieces and fell away, revealing the gold egg of the solution in the middle. Feeling that she had extended her metaphor beyond its coefficient of expansion, she blew idle smoke rings all the way to the city.
Bert, who was about to call upon his maker to deliver him from unconscionable demands from stroppy sheilas, decided not to on receipt of a fifty megawatt glare from those strange green eyes. He felt a moment of gentle Christian pity for whoever tried to stop Miss Fisher…
She stood so still that a questing rat paused in its passage across her foot, whiffling its whiskers, wondering if the engineer was dead enough to provide a late-night snack. Loathing washed over Phryne so strongly she was afraid that she would retch. The clammy tail was across her bare ankle. It was cold. It was one of the vilest things she had ever felt in her whole life and if it had gone on for another second she might have flinched.
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