(Image from Barnes & Noble)
After losing her pastry chef job at a Manhattan restaurant and her fiancé in one fell swoop, Kate McGuire is at loose ends. Desperate for a new start, she heads to Coral Cay, a charming beach town in Florida. When she spies a Help Wanted sign in the window of a local cookie shop, it seems like fate is finally smiling on her. Sam Hepplewhite, The Cookie House's cantankerous owner, isn't so sure he needs Kate's help. It's her job to convince him.
When money-grubbing bully Stewart Lord ends up dead after eating one of Sam's cinnamon rolls, the baker finds himself in hot water. To save her boss and his beloved cookie shop, Kate knows she has to prove Sam's innocence. With the help of her new Coral Cay friends, she sets about doing just that. Can she find the killer before she ends up as dead as Stewart Lord?
And Then There Were Crumbs is the first installment in Eve Calder's super fun Cookie House Mystery series. It features a warm, friendly community setting; likable, upbeat characters; and a mystery that's intriguing enough (even if it's not very twisty or original). The story's not very realistic (few cozies are), but it's not totally ridiculous either. For all these reasons, I quite enjoyed this engaging series opener. I'll definitely be reading on.
(Readalikes: Reminds me of cozy mysteries by Ellie Alexander, Vivien Chien, Amanda Flower, and Lena Gregory)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for brief, mild language (no F-bombs) and violence
To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find
There sure are a lot of cozies centered around food, aren't there? ;D
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