Book 41, 2022

[chez_jae]

Two Wicked Desserts by Lynn Cahoon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



After cleaning house this morning, I finished reading Two Wicked Desserts by Lynn Cahoon. It's the second part of the "Kitchen Witch" mystery series, featuring hedge witch and chef, Mia Malone.

Mia is enjoying getting her new catering business, Mia's Morsels, up and running. She has plans for the old schoolhouse she bought, and she wants to put in a garden to grow her own herbs and produce. When a dead body is found in her garden, however, Mia has a lot more on her plate than just her catering gigs. Adding to the confusion, Mia's cat, Mr Darcy, is hosting the spirit of Dorian Alexander, who was dating Mia's grandmother before he passed. With Dorian's death, his daughter Cindy has inherited his grimoire and spells, but she has no idea how to cast. Cindy ends up in Magic Springs, where Grans tries to help her. Unfortunately, Cindy becomes a suspect in the murder. Mia wants to help Cindy clear her name, but she's also dealing with the return of John Louis, the man who spent a nominal time in prison for harassing and threatening her once before. It seems John is up to his old tricks, but is he desperate enough to kill someone as a message to Mia?

There is such a thing as too much going on in a story. We have the murder mystery, Cindy's dilemma, more threats against Mia, Dorian's conundrum, relationship issues between Mia's sous chef, Christina, and her boyfriend, Levi, and now Grans is telling Mia about the long ago death of a young witch, which may lead to someone wanting to kill Mia to break an old curse. Guh! At least I can't say the story wasn't fast-paced, because it pelted along. We did see Mia doing things other than sleuthing, which I appreciate, and I enjoyed the slow pacing of her own relationship with Trent. My biggest peeve about the story is that, although we learn who the killer was, there's still the fact that it needs to be proved, so it basically seemed like the book ended with no actual resolution. Maddening.

Favorite lines:
♦ "I'm pretty sure the look on your face is because of the idea of desserts and not me, but don't ruin my fantasy."
♦ "Failure isn't fatal."
♦ "This is why I like running the store and staying out of the magic stuff. It keeps me from having to deal with things like proving a cat right."

Overall, very enjoyable. Four stars.