The Chocolate Castle Clue
JoAnna Carl


ISBN-10:
045123474X
ISBN-13:978-0451234742
Publisher: Penguin Group
Line: NAL Trade
Release Date: Oct 4, 2011
Pages: 240
Retail Price: $22.95



Genre: Mystery
Rating:

Indulge in another Chocoholic mystery in the national bestselling series.

Lee McKinney Woodyard discovers a dusty trophy inside TenHuis Chocolade that belongs to her aunt Nettie and her old high school singing group, the Pier-O-Ettes. It's a trophy that brings back terrible memories of an unsolved murder years ago.

Before Lee takes aim at the past, someone is murdered in the here and now. Lee needs to keep her eyes on the prize, hoping the trophy is a clue to finding the killer-before she's a target herself.

Review

Tourist season may be over in the small resort town of Warner Pier, Michigan, but that doesn’t mean life’s getting any quieter for its residents.  TenHuis Chocolade manager Lee McKinney Woodyard is busy cleaning out the business’ cramped and dusty storage space, and her Aunt Nettie (TenHuis’ owner) is frantically preparing for her high school reunion – a reunion at which her old singing group, the Pier-O-Ettes, is expected to perform.

Lee is excited at the prospect of getting to see her aunt sing, but unfortunately, it seems not everyone in Warner Pier is happy about the Pier-O-Ettes’ return to town.  When old Mrs. Rice threatens Aunt Nettie via Lee, and then tries to run a car bearing her aunt and the rest of the Pier-O-Ettes off the road, Lee’s determined to find out what Nettie and her friends could have done as teenagers to inspire such long-lasting ire.  The only problem is, the Pier-O-Ettes aren’t talking, and neither is anyone else in town.  But then Mrs. Rice winds up dead, the victim of an apparent homicide, and the police start looking at Nettie and company as potential suspects.  Lee knows her sweet, mild-mannered aunt had nothing to do with the crime, but how can she prove it?  Is she a good enough sleuth to track down the real killer before the wrong person can be convicted – or before the killer has a chance to strike again?

The Chocolate Castle Clue is the eleventh of Joanna Carl’s Chocoholic Mysteries.  It’s the first book I've read in the series, and unfortunately, I'm not sure it was the best place for me to start.  Don’t get me wrong – it's not that the book is hard to follow; on the contrary, Carl does a nice job of filling in the reader with regard to past events and character backgrounds.  No, it's more that The Chocolate Castle Clue is lacking the sort of spark you hope to find in a good cozy – you know, the warmth, charm, and atmosphere that makes you want to keep coming back to that little corner of the fictional world. 

The plot is solid (though a tad simple), and the mystery is interesting (even if the solution is kind of convoluted), but the prose is dry and workmanlike and the pace is rather slow.  The stakes are never all that high, keeping the tension low and sapping the book of narrative drive.  And there’s too much information conveyed in the first few chapters without the benefit of any emotion or action; Carl does a lot of telling without showing, which makes it hard to get caught up in her tale.  

Good characters can do a lot to save a book, but while Lee is a likeable enough heroine, you never get to know her all that well as a person.  I want a narrator that adds something to the tale, and unfortunately, Lee doesn’t fulfill that role; you may see the story through her eyes, but you never really get a good sense of how the events affect her personally or how they make her feel.  This problem is only compounded by the fact that the supporting cast is largely comprised of two-dimensional characters who share little chemistry with Lee (or with each other, for that matter).  There are glimpses of depth here and there, but for the most part, Lee's cast feels – and falls – flat.

I had the great pleasure of seeing JoAnna Carl speak on a panel at a mystery convention earlier this fall, and I have to say, she stole the show.  She’s a strong, smart, funny woman who has the ability to captivate a crowd with her words, and she’s one heck of an ambassador for the cozy genre.  So did I find The Chocolate Castle Clue to be a bit of a letdown? Yes.  But will it be the last JoAnna Carl book I ever read? No way.  Carl’s spunk is impossible to deny, and I’m unwilling to write off an entire series based on what may well be just one off book.

Reviewed by Kat


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