The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha - JoAnna Carl
The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha
A Chocoholic Mystery
JoAnna Carl
Berkley Prime Crime
Mystery
It’s winter in Warner Pier, Michigan, a tourist town that
sees most of its business during the summer months. Since Ten Huis Chocolades has a mail-order
business, manager Lee Woodyard is able to keep staff employed all year
round. For instance, there’s the order
for nine thousand chocolate bunnies just placed by a major customer. One of her more recent hires is a nervous
woman called Bunny Birdsong. Lee is delighted
to learn than Bunny can help with the mail order side of things, and stop
wreaking havoc in the production kitchen.
No sooner than that problem been solved, when another shows
up in the person of Abigail Birdsong, Bunny’s husband’s aunt. Aunt Abigail is simply aghast that Bunny has
left her husband. Aunt Abigail is used
to getting her way, since she essentially bankrolls the husband’s art work. Bunny’s explanation that the creep has moved
another woman into her home changes Aunt Abigail’s tune. She declares that she will change her will,
making Bunny her beneficiary. It’s
around that point that the Other Woman arrives and more words are exchanged. By the time this storm passes, it’s time to
shut up shop and go home.
The following morning, Lee is there bright and early to do a
walkthrough of her current construction project. Ten Huis has grown so much, they’ve bought
the building next door and are busy converting that building and connecting the
two. To her shock, there’s a dead body
on the floor of the unoccupied building.
Lee and the contractor went to great pains to make sure that building is
always securely locked. But someone got
in, and laid a very dead Abigail Birdsong neatly on the floor.
This is an interesting and fast-paced mystery. For longtime readers, most of the characters
are quite familiar. It’s fun to watch
their lives change and progress as the series continues. For readers new to the series (see partial
list below) there’s plenty of background given to catch you up on the various
characters. The mystery begins as a sort
of Locked Room Mystery, then expands when a second person is attacked just
outside the shop. The eventual solution
was innovative and required Lee’s particular brand of non-official
investigative flair. Chocolate trivia
and a delicious-sounding recipe are also included.
Rating: 7
November 2016
ISBN# 978-0-451-47382-0 (hardcover)
posted by Deborah Hern @ 10:22 PM
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