Cooking Dough or Die is the first in a new series whose main character Olivia Greyson runs a cookie-themed store. The store is located on the first floor of her home that she shares with her Yorkie, Spunky, in Chatterley Heights, Maryland.

One night, Olivia fears an intruder has broken into the shop below only to find out it’s her impulsive best friend Maddie Briggs with a middle-of-the-night inspiration for a new cookie. Olivia barely has time to breath after her scare when Sheriff Delroy Jenkins comes to the door with terrible news - Olivia’s friend and mentor Clarisse Chamberlain has been found dead at home. While it first appears the older woman has died from natural causes, it now looks like either suicide or murder. Can Clarisse’s beloved cookie-cutter collection hold a clue to her death?

The author does a great job of setting up this new series. She includes such vivid descriptions of Olivia’s store that you can visualize the store and nearly smell the scent of baking cookies. Realistic, humorous dialog support the plot and keep the story moving forward.

I enjoyed most of the characters in the book. When Olivia’s childhood friend Maddie is on the scene, there is plenty of humor and outrageous situations. At first Maddie comes across as self-centered, but as the book continues, I came to appreciate Maddie and her friendship with Olivia. The two young women have been friends since childhood and they have a loving, teasing relationship like that of sisters. One of my favorite scenes occurs after Maddie has helped Olivia do some online research. When Olivia discovers one of the ways she was able to get information about one of the suspects, she exclaims, “You hacked into my email? How could you do that?” Maddie calmly replies, “It was easy, really. FYI, don’t use pet names for passwords.”

While I loved Olivia from the beginning and came to like Maddie, I’ve remained undecided about Olivia’s mom. Ellie comes across as unreal to the point of being a caricature of a youthful, busy mom. Ellie is constantly rushing to and from various clubs, groups, and classes. I lost track at eight different groups ranging from poetry groups, Kung Fu lessons, knitting circles, and more. When she’s not occupied with one of her numerous activities, Ellie is supportive of her daughter and even steps in to help at the shop to give Olivia time to investigate. As Ellie‘s different activities began to pile up, I wasn‘t sure if the author intended all of these various groups to be taken seriously or if it was meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. I was left confused about how to react to this character.

Delroy Jenkins or “Sheriff Del” is clearly being established as a love interest for Olivia in future books, so it will be interesting to see how that progresses. We see Del in action as a sheriff, but don’t really get to know him as a person in this book. He comes across as likeable, but fairly unreadable regarding his feelings about a relationship with Olivia.

At the end, Olivia brings all of the suspects together à la Hercule Poirot, although the gathering ends up having more in common with the Keystone Cops as things don’t go quite as planned. However, the truth about Clarisse’s death soon comes to light and everything is resolved satisfactorily. 

Fans of Joanne Fluke or of Jenn McKinlay’s Cupcake Bakery mysteries will enjoy this new culinary mystery series which is unique in that it includes information about collectible cookie cutters instead of recipes.

Reviewed by: Christine K.