As co-owners of Eastport’s beloved waterfront bakery, the Chocolate Moose, Jake and Ellie know their customers expect them to cream the competition. But they’re really just in it for fun, hoping to get Jake’s daughter-in-law baking again. Those plans collapse when fearsome local curmudgeon Alvin Carter is murdered, and every crumb of evidence points to Tiptree family friend—and all-around sweet guy—Billy Breyer.
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Billy’s sisters beg Jake and Ellie to prove his innocence. After all, lots of folks had gone sour on Alvin, whose popularity ranked somewhere between a toothache and the plague. But just as the ladies begin sifting through the suspects, a series of grass fires blaze across the island, threatening catastrophe. Could someone be trying to hide the truth about Alvin’s murder?
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Now, Jake and Ellie will need all their courage—and an extra dash of that downeast Maine stubbornness—to sniff out the real killer before anyone else gets burned . . .
Release Date: Feb 23, 2021
Series:Â Death by Chocolate
Book:Â 4
Publisher:Â KensingtonÂ
Price: $9.99
Small towns carry their fair share of secrets and sometimes it takes a murder-mystery to unravel them. Some people hope to bury their secrets forever, but sometimes these secrets are meant to be known. In a small town, where everyone knows of each other, a murder-mystery will bring people closer than ever before. Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle is the fourth book in-series, A Death by Chocolate Mystery by Sarah Graves.Â
Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and Ellie White are best friends often finding themselves in a whole lot of trouble and together they run the Chocolate Moose in the quiet town of Eastport, Maine. But when a murder occurs in their small town and one of their friends is a murder suspect, Jake and Ellie take it upon themselves to investigate and solve the mysterious death before the consequences take a life of their own.Â
Often times, the characters set the tone for the mysteries and their manner and characterization of each character set the pace in the unraveling of clues. For example, loud characters often find themselves in loud situations and the book is usually filled with loud scenes and murder angst. The characters in this book are decent, but quiet and the scenes are slow paced. At first, I had a bit of difficulty engaging with the story, the focus was placed in getting to know the characters at the beginning of the book, but as the story progressed, it became easier to follow along.Â
The story and the mystery are good. I liked that there were several shady characters circulating throughout the mystery, it kept my attention and imagination going. I did feel like the story dragged on a bit. The main characters took several unnecessary risks, like going several times to the scene of the crime. I also found the motive to be a bit imaginative, but by the end of it all, it wrapped up nicely.Â
A good story with a good mystery and quiet characters. Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle, (which by the way is not what caused the death of the murdered character) is imaginative and satisfying.Â
~ Patricia
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