Book 57, 2024
Jun. 7th, 2024 09:28 pm
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I finished Murder at the Blueberry Festival on Wednesday night. It's the third part of Darci Hannah's "Beacon Bakeshop" cozy mystery series. The main character is Lindsey Bakewell.
The town of Beacon Harbor is gearing up for its annual Blueberry Festival. Lindsey is busy baking blueberry everything: pies, muffins, buckle, etc. She has agreed to host the blueberry pie eating contest and supply the pies, while her boyfriend, Rory, will be in charge of the 5K run. Even Lindsey's mother, former model Ellie Montague Bakewell, is hosting a fashion show that Lindsey's BFF, Kennedy, is involved in. Things are going well until the pranks begin. It starts out with a local realtor getting pranked, but the shenanigans escalate to the point that some of the activities are ruined. As everyone scrambles to figure out who's behind the chicanery, Lindsey and Rory find a dead man in a boat, dressed in full Viking regalia. Lindsey is convinced the pranks and the murder are related, but not everyone agrees. It will be up to Lindsey and Rory to determine who had a motive to kill old Lars and ruin the festival.
I did enjoy this book, but I soured on the pranks. The first one was harmless fun, but subsequent pranks ruined a lot of hard work by a lot of people. It was no longer funny at that point, in my opinion. Plot progression was smooth, and the characters were three-dimensional. I appreciated that Lindsey was occupied with other things than simply investigating, and some of the food being prepared had me drooling. LOL!
Favorite lines:
♦ There is something charming and nostalgic about a small-town parade.
♦ "First rule of chicanery, never confess to the deed."
♦ "What exactly is a glory hole?" *titters inappropriately*
Solid four stars