Book 34, 2026

[chez_jae]

A Cup of Poison: A cozy Mystery by Caleb Finch

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


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Last night I polished off another ebook: A Cup of Poison by Caleb Finch. It’s the first in the “Siamese Sleuth” mystery series. The main character is Miss Dulce, a retired teacher, and her Siamese cat, Cleo.

During the Spring Bloom Fair in Rosehill Village, one of the attendees drops dead after taking a sip of her tea. Miss Dulce doesn’t believe that Cordelia died of natural causes, and when Cleo keeps finding clues, Dulce launches her own investigation. As she closes in on a killer, the killer is closing in on her.

This had a decent start, but it fell all to hell by the end. The narrative became far too repetitive; therefore, I am once again calling bullshit on AI. Dulce’s floral shawl was always drooping off her shoulder, each time she carried the wicker basket containing all the clues she’d amassed (as one does) we had to read an itemized list, the mailman’s hat was always tilted, Cleo’s tail flicked back and forth like a metronome (an interesting analogy when first introduced but boring by the tenth time), and Dulce had an irritating habit of assuring this character or that that she wasn’t accusing him/her of anything…yet. Worst of all, where was the chief of police in all of this?! We’ve all read enough cozies to know that the sheriff/detective/chief of police is always telling our main character to butt out and leave the investigation to the professionals, but not once was Dulce even questioned about nosing around town and shaking people down. Wouldn’t keeping important clues be interference? And how was it that Cleo kept finding notes and photos outside that were, like, 20 years old?! Yes, that sound you heard was me rolling my eyes. Finally, the cat depicted on the cover of the book is a ginger, not a Siamese. Hmpf.

Favorite line: “I leave you folks for one afternoon, and you’re killing each other over scones?”

The story wasn’t ba-ad. It would have earned an average score, but the irritating repetition knocks the score down to a two.

Comments

[felaine]

Mistaking a Ginger for a Siamese is like confusing Ron Weasley with Snape.
Just no. Sounds AI to me; so exasperating. Do you think there are some books written totally AI without any live author or editing?
Horrible thought.