Book 7, 2026

[chez_jae]

Sugar and Spite by Carol J. Perry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


View all my reviews

I have today off, so I stayed up late to finish reading Sugar and Spite by Carol J Perry. It’s the 15th book in her “Witch City” mystery series featuring TV reporter, Lee Barrett Mondello.

With Halloween approaching, Lee is tasked with doing a series on local candy shops in Salem. Considering she’s eight months pregnant, she welcomes the easy nature of her assignment, although Lee sometimes finds herself missing the more serious investigative reporting she used to do. While touring Casa de Chocolatte, Lee stumbles upon the dead body of the owner’s ex-husband, Bernie Bingham. Shop owner Shirley Parker had divorced Bernie years ago, but she was still making palimony payments to him. The police naturally focus on Shirley. Lee, however, learns that Bernie had crossed plenty of shady characters in Salem. She tries to focus on her own assignments, but Lee keeps getting drawn back into the drama. She notices that both Shirley and her adult son, Hugh, seem to show up wherever she goes. Lee’s husband, Pete, becomes aggravated and even more protective, as does their cat, O’Ryan. Lee can’t wait for this case to be solved so she can concentrate on motherhood.

I enjoyed the first 70% of this story. Characters were real and relatable, the plot was fast-paced and exciting, and Bernie’s murder was truly confounding. Late in the book, however, things went completely off the rails. The author dropped her fudge, and the editor failed to clean it up.


- Lee went into labor a month early, but no one else besides me seemed alarmed by this.
- On page 217, which seemed a couple weeks after the baby was born, the author mentioned how Lee would walk the dog as she was taking a stroll with the baby in her carriage. On page 247, however, was this quote: “I’m dying to give Ella her first carriage ride.” I was like, ‘Wait. What?’ and I flipped back several pages to assure myself I wasn’t crazy.
- How much time has actually passed? Page 247 also included discussion of Bernie’s upcoming funeral. The man was murdered well before the baby was born; how long does it take to plant him?!
- Was Bernie’s girlfriend named Tricia or Trisha? Editing, people.
- On page 248, Lee was talking to Pete about how Shirley had given money to Bernie’s buddy, Earl, to buy some decent clothes for the funeral. Funny thing is, Lee and Pete had almost that exact same conversation on page 220. Yes, I flipped back to assure myself I wasn’t crazy.
- On page 249, Pete brought lunch home for Lee, and when he left to return to work ‘...it was only one thirty and the whole afternoon loomed ahead of me.’ Lee then took Ella to see her Aunt Ibby, learned something that distressed her, went home, called Pete, he came rushing home to soothe her, and when he left...’it wasn’t even noon yet, and again, the day stretched out before me.’ Lest you think I’m crazy and these were two different days, I can assure you they were not. Lee’s co-workers were planning a baby shower for her the following afternoon, which happened as scheduled the next day.
- By page 260, Lee’s boss is asking her to do some simple fluff assignments. How old was the baby at this point?! A week, two weeks? She sure as hell wasn’t six weeks old!
- For that matter, Lee certainly seemed energetic, put-together, and accomplished for a woman who just gave birth. I’m not a mother, but perhaps those of you who are can weigh in on this. Did you shower, dress, take care of your fussy newborn, and have the house cleaned before lunch each day while wondering what you were going to do all afternoon? And if so, were you snorting cocaine?
- On page 261, Pete and Lee hooked up the baby monitor Shirley had given them as a gift and decided to test it out. They flopped into their bed and pulled up the feed on a phone, only to have O’Ryan block the view. That led them to realize that the cat was blocking someone else’s view, whereupon they quickly unhooked the monitor. On page 267, Hugh tells them he caught his mother watching Lee as she rocked and nursed the baby…but that never happened! Pete and Lee had unhooked the monitor immediately.

Since all of that ‘What-the-F*ckery’ happened late in the book, it gave the impression that the author had tired of it and was just trying to wrap things up quickly. It was sloppy. Even the resolution of the murder was just handed to them when one character came to the police to throw another under the bus, bringing the receipts along to prove it. It was disappointing. Another thing I found disappointing was the lack of the trademark paranormal element. Lee’s pregnancy seemed to have curtailed her ability to see visions in reflective surfaces. The author didn’t indicate this is the last book in the series, but with the way the final chapter ended, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Favorite lines:
♦ “The trailer says there’s a crazy cat lady in it.” We’re everywhere! Muahaha!
♦ “Cats are all kinds of magical, aren’t they?”

I truly enjoyed most of the book until it went tits up at the end. For that reason, it gets an average score of three, and I believe that’s being lenient.

Comments

[felaine]

I read a few of that series, too bad the paranormal aspect wasn't there; that gave it something different.

You feel dead and dug up for weeks at least after giving birth,
because it's difficult and you get no sleep, or rest or time to yourself, even with people helping.
I got the house completely cleaned before the kid started grade school.

[chez_jae]

I thought it was awfully far-fetched for Lee to be so productive shortly after giving birth.

:/