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The small town of Yarrow Glen’s neighbor, Lockwood, hosts an annual Labor Day weekend bash: Dairy Days. And Willa Bauer and her cheese shop, Curds & Whey, refuse to miss out on the fun. Willa is thrilled to celebrate her favorite thing—she is a cheesemonger after all—and this festival goes all out: butter sculptures, goat races, cheese wheel relays, even a Miss Dairy pageant. Too bad the pageant runner, Nadine, is treating Dairy Days prep like it’s fondue or die and is putting everyone around her on edge.

When Willa finds Nadine’s dead body under years’ worth of ceramic milk jugs, the police aren’t sure whether the death was an accident. But fingers are pointing at Willa’s employee, Mrs. Schultz, who steps in to help the pageant after Nadine’s death. Someone wanted Nadine out of the whey, and Willa is going to find out who.


Release Date: Oct 22, 2024
Series: Cheese Shop Mysteries
Book: 5
Publisher: Macmillan
Imprint: St. Martin’s Press
Price: $9.99


Willa Bauer is the owner of a specialty cheese shop in the small town of Yarrow Glen, California. Her shop is going to have a booth at the Labor Day Dairy Days festival in the neighboring town of Lockwood. Everyone from the shop participates in the festival, and Willa’s employee, Mrs. Schultz, helps with the beauty pageant. When the woman running the pageant dies at the festival, local law enforcement is ready to call it an accident to keep the profitable festival from being canceled. However, Willa and her friends, who call themselves Team Cheese, think it’s murder.

Even though the Lockwood police chief is trying to rule the death of Nadine Hockenbaum an accident, there are several clues that point to murder. The chief seems to alternate between saying nobody is responsible for the death and treating Mrs. Schultz as a suspect. Willa worries either way that her friend will be arrested or could be in danger from a killer. She is determined to find out what really happened to Nadine, no matter what the Lockwood police chief says. Willa’s investigations have been an obstacle in the past to a potential romance with Yarrow Glen’s handsome detective, but this time, Heath is on her side and working with her to investigate. Things become dramatic and dangerous for Team Cheese as they get closer to the whole truth.

This is the fifth Cheese Shop Mystery book and one of my favorites in the series. The plot is interesting, and the friendship between the main characters really shines. More than in any of the prior books, I could really feel the chemistry between Willa and Heath and hope things work out. I think new readers could easily catch up and enjoy the book. If you’ve not read one of these books before, you will quickly learn that in addition to being entertained, you will also start craving cheese. Luckily, there are a couple of recipes at the end of the book.

~ Christine                             

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