Review
Best friends and business partners Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura have entered the “challenge to the chefs” competition at the Scottsdale Food Festival, and they’re determined to bring home a win. Not only would first place garner them a $10,000 prize and all kinds of free publicity for their bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, but it would also mean defeat for their rival, Olivia Puckett – an onerous woman who could stand to be taken down a peg or two.
At first things look good for the pair; they’ve been preparing for weeks, and it turns out that one of the judges of the contest is an old culinary school mentor of Mel’s named Vic Mazzotta. But then Vic is found dead – the apparent victim of foul play – and it looks like someone may be gunning for Mel and Angie, as well. Is someone trying to rig the results of the competition? And, if so, who would go to such extremes to win a bake-off? Can the Fairy Take Cupcakes crew manage watch each other’s backs without taking their eyes off the prize?
Death by the Dozen is the third installment in Jenn McKinlay’s Cupcake Bakery Mystery series. A wonderfully tangled tale of love, lies, jealousy, and murder, McKinlay’s latest is her strongest thus far. The plot is intricate, the pacing is perfect, and the tension remains high throughout. Her sense of atmosphere is strong and warm, and by populating her book with a vibrant, likable, wonderfully well-developed cast, McKinlay all but ensures the reader’s immediate and continued emotional investment.
The central conceit of the story – that Mel and Angie are competing in a multi-day Chopped-style baking competition – provides a fun structure for the book and allows to McKinlay to trot out some truly inventive dessert recipes. And her character work is, as always, top-notch. Mel is a smart, charming, spunky heroine who never backs down. The dour and scheming Olivia is perfect as Mel and Angie’s archrival, and provides great comic relief, to boot. Angie’s gaggle of fiercely overprotective brothers is like a Greek chorus of awesome. And punk-rock bakery intern Oz adds the fun, hip edge you didn’t even know Fairy Tale Cupcakes was lacking.
But McKinlay’s real skill – the thing that always keeps me coming back for more with regard to this series – is her ability to create realistic, compelling relationships between her characters. The decades-old friendship that exists between Mel, Angie, and Tate is sweet, funny, and realistic, and helps add depth and texture to all three characters. And the star-crossed, will-they-or-won’t-they thing that’s starting to develop between Angie and Tate is destined to give Ross and Rachel’s epic romance a run for its money.
Take my advice: get thee to a bookstore and check out Jenn McKinlay’s Death by the Dozen. It’s Cleo Coyle meets the Food Network, and it’s a hundred kinds of fabulous.
Reviewed by Kat