Jessa Maxwell

I couldn't resist a book described as a mashup of the movie [Clue] and 'The Great British Baking Show.' Sadly, I should have paid more attention to the lukewarm reviews I saw of it and at least tempered my expectations...

[The Golden Spoon] started off well enough, setting up the plot and characters. Betsy Martin is a grande dame of American baking and hosts a baking competition at her family home in Vermont. This year, 6 contestants will be vying for the coveted Golden Spoon. We meet the characters in alternating chapters as they prepare for and arrive for the show. And then weird things start happening - someone is sabotaging some of the bakes, strange footsteps are heard at night, some people appear to be keeping secrets.... It really could have been a fun novel, but the characters are incredibly flat, the writing barely rises above pedestrian, and the ultimate denouement is just kind of dumb. I'm not sorry I read it, as there were some good moments, but overall, it was a big bowl of meh.

3.25 stars… (mais)

After being on the library waiting list for this for ages, this buzzy cozy finally came in, and I took it with me out of town, putting a just-begun Agatha Raisin on hold.

Little did I dream I would gobble it down in one day! (I had time on my hands for once). What fun!

I am not always a fan of the multiple POV style, which also includes hopping around a bit in the narrative. But it was a fun way to tell this locked room tale, and it kept me guessing.. Including, "Okay, this is a mystery story, but who is the victim going to be?"

If you bake, if you have a sweet tooth, if you enjoy TV cooking competitions, hell.. if you just like imagining luscious goodies to eat and imbibe, you might agree that this is a lively, fairly well-written (*), and (at least for me, once I got into it), addictive murder mystery.

Bon appétit!

(*) - I found at least 2 glaring homophone errors. So glaring that I had to pause and look back at the title page to prove to myself this was not a self-published work but an imprint of Simon and Schuster, no less. For shame!… (mais)