chez_jae

A Killer Cupcake by Fiona Grace

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Finished my latest book this evening. It was A Killer Cupcake by Fiona Grace, and it's the first book in the "Beachfront Bakery" series. The main character is Allison "Ali" Sweet.

Ali's life is in limbo. Due to an incident at the famous LA restaurant where she worked, she's lost her job, and then her boyfriend of three years admits he's gay and says he's moving to NY. Ali has always dreamed of opening her own bakery, and when she comes upon an open space on the boardwalk of Willow Bay, she impulsively leases it, along with a small cottage within walking distance. Ali's dream begins to fizzle, however, when no one darkens her doorstep to buy her fussy French pastries. One of the few people to come in does so to berate her for scooping the lease out from under him. When that same man is later found dead in the bay, suspicion falls on Ali. She had argued with him, after all, and she was also on the pier at the same time the victim was pushed into the water. Desperate to clear her name and save her fledgling business, Ali begins asking questions. Will her sleuthing lead to a solution, or see Ali sleeping with the fishes?

This was a cute, uncomplicated cozy. There were a lot of zany characters introduced, including the handsome Italian twins who own competing pizzerias on either side of Ali's shop. Ali seemed to spend far more time investigating, but in her defense, it's not like she had much business to attend to. I was a tad disappointed that the solution all but dropped out of the sky. It made all of her investigating seem for naught.

Favorite line: Ten a.m. was a socially acceptable time to knock on a stranger's door and accuse him of murder, wasn't it?

This was fun and humorous but lacking in substance. Three stars.

( Trope Test )

Purrfect Crime by Nic Saint

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Last night I polished off Purrfect Crime, the 5th book in the "Mysteries of Max" series by Nic Saint. Main characters are tubby ginger tabby Max and his person, reporter Odelia Poole.

Donna Bruce, famous actress and lifestyle influencer, has been murdered in her own sauna. The weapon? A swarm of bees. Odelia is soon on the case with Detective Chase Kingsley, and she's relying on her cats to snoop around and see what they can learn. Max, however, is having trouble keeping up. A trip to the vet indicates that he's gone from tubby to obese, and Odelia has to put him on a diet. Weakened with hunger and unable to think of anything but food, Max isn't much help. This leads Odelia to putting Harriet in charge of the cats' investigation. Harriet's idea of investigating, however, is surfing celebrity gossip sites on the internet. Max is going to have to pull himself together if he and Odelia are going to crack this case.

Okay. So, I thought this series had reached a turning point with the last book, but this one swirled down the toilet again. Brutus is back to being a class A jerk, the author (for reasons unknown) decided to add sex toys to the mix, which would have been funny in passing, but he chose to make a huge deal of them. I'm no prude, but when I'm reading a cozy mystery, I don't expect to be metaphorically smacked upside the head with a dildo. It was sort of like if you'd gone to the movies to see a rom-com and it involved some terrifying chase scenes à la a horror flick. What was the point? I'm back to thinking the author knows precious little about cats, or women either, for that matter. He certainly doesn't seem to hold the females in the story in high regard, especially Harriet. It's like the author is projecting all of his aggravation with women onto her, since Harriet comes across as prissy, incompetent, focused on celebrity gossip, and disgustingly ga-ga for any domineering, alpha male/bad boy. It was revolting. As for cat behavior, they don't kiss, they don't punch one another, and they don't have pecs. Yes, I know they don't talk, either, but I can enjoy a talking cat in fiction, so long as it still acts like a cat. Sue me. Finally, the clue that broke the case wide open wasn't something that was discovered via hard work or sleuthing, but rather was served up on a platter in the most ridiculously unbelievable situation. Lazy and sloppy.

Favorite lines:
♦ "Maybe you should have one of those shotgun weddings so I can bring a shotgun and shoot myself."
♦ "He may be a douche, but he's not a murdering douche."
♦ "We should Google it. The Google knows everything."
♦ I don't watch the Hallmark Channel but the Discovery Channel. That's why I'm smart and the others are all dummies.
♦ "Of course I'll take my dildo. I never leave home without it."
♦ "You look just about one sausage away from a massive coronary."*
Okay, that line had me guffawing!

Back to square one with this series. Dismal score of two stars.