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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2532 KP) rated Murder Most Sweet in Books

Sep 11, 2020

Sweet and Light, but Could be Stronger

After surviving breast cancer five years ago, Teddie St. John starting writing culinary cozies, combining her love and baking and mysteries. She’s moderately successful, and looking forward to meeting the highly successful Tavish Bentley when he comes to her small Wisconsin town for a book signing. However, the event ends early when Teddie finds Tavish’s fiancée dead in the ally next to the bookstore. The murder weapon was one of Teddie’s scarfs. Teddie needs to clear her name, but can she do it?

Since I love both culinary and booked themed cozies, I was looking forward to digging into this debut. Unfortunately, I found the mystery to be weak. It started well, but it wasn’t strong enough overall. On the other hand, Teddie does lead a cast of fun characters that I enjoyed meeting. I did find Teddie’s mother a bit much, but hopefully that relationship will grow as the series goes on. The suspects are just as strong and memorable as the main characters. As a man, I was a bit uncomfortable with some of the talk about Teddie’s breast cancer, but I am sure most people who pick up the book will be fine with that. If the book leaves you craving some Wisconsin sweets, you’ll be thrilled to find the six recipes at the back of the book. Hopefully, the mysteries will grow as the series progresses.

Kudos

Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray

Adam Federman

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Book

Patience Gray, author of cult autobiographical cookery book Honey from a Weed (and for many years a...

Biography food

Hazana: Jewish Vegetarian Cooking

Paola Gavin

7.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Food and cooking are at the heart of Jewish life. During their 2,000 years of exile, Jews migrated...

food

The Video Cookbook

Food & Drink and Lifestyle

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App

Access over 290 easy to follow video recipes on your iPad/iPhone. Created by current industry...

Dine With Me

Layla Reyne

8.5 (2 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Life never tasted so good. Miller Sykes’s meteoric rise to award-winning chef is the stuff of...

Contemporary MM Romance

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2532 KP) rated The Bush Tea Murder (A Caribbean Island Mystery #1) in Books

Apr 24, 2026

Naomi Solves Her First…Side Quest

Naomi Sinclair is a culinary journalist living her dream with her job at EAT TV hosting a show where she gets to interview chefs. When a potential new show investigating culinary related cold cases is presented to her, she immediately thinks of a famous case on her native St. Thomas. Four decades ago, the owner of a tea company on the island was killed while locked in her office. It’s the perfect case for her potential pilot. But will she be able to solve it?

The premise and setting appealed to me, so I decided to give this one a try. Sadly, the structure let it down. We get a series of short stories that tie in to the overall mystery only slightly. They feel like side quests. We also have a framing story of Naomi talking about all of this to executives of her TV network. When I realized how different the structure would be, I tried to give it a fair shot, but it truly didn’t work for me. On the other hand, I loved the characters and the setting, and the writing brought them both to life wonderfully. Also, keep in mind that there’s a bit of foul language for what I would have otherwise considered a cozy. If the next in the series has a more traditional structure, I would definitely read it.