Wait! What? Jacobia/Jake used to work for the mob? Dang, if I knew that, I'd totally forgotten and I thought I'd read all the home repair books featuring Jake and her family and friends. Guess not, huh, or it's just been too long ago. In any case, Sarah Graves was one of my early obsessions with mysteries. The tales of Jake's father's troubled past, not to mention the headaches fixing up her old house appeared to generate, kept my attention. Despite my lapse of memory, I'll note that the book stands alone nicely as all this and more is thoroughly shared without slowing down the pace.
That trend of grabbing my attention definitely continues. "Death By Chocolate Marshmallow Pie" is fast paced and tense, although Graves uses humor to lighten the mood well. Not only is her best friend and co-worker at The Chocolate Moose suspected of killing a nasty business rival, but her father is determined to move to a retirement center despite his wife Bella's opposition and Jake's married son Sam has simply showed up one morning in her kitchen to stay awhile. No satisfactory explanation but, well, what's a mother to do? He's family. Toss in that Jake's shadowy past (yes, the one I'd forgotten, bad me) may come out with unknown repercussions and that potential suspects seem to either wind up dead or injured and, well, Jake's life is anything but dull.
So, who killed the rival chocolate shop owner? How did the killer get Ellie's gun, which she insists was safely locked in her car? Why is Babs so frighten looking? And, speaking of Babs, a fabric artist, how was she able to afford an assistant? That rather goes against the "poor-starving-artist" stereotype. Who.... oh, enough teasers. This one is top-notch and will keep you guessing until the end.
I didn't guess until then and still hadn't connected all the dots. Fortunately for me, author Sarah Graves shared the connections. She also left us with a bit of a cliff-hanger not really connected to Jake. Someone is leaving Eastport, Maine? Nope, not telling. Read the book. If you like tense, fast paced mysteries with characters that have interesting backstories, not to mention chocolate, this one's for you. I mean, chocolate covered pretzels had me but, wow, chocolate covered bacon?
Thanks #NetGalley and #KensingtonBooks - #KensingtonCozies for letting me drop in early to sample some of Jake and Ellie's chocolate delights. The recipe included sounds sinfully delicious.
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