Egg Drop Dead

Cackleberry Club, Book #7

By Laura Childs

ISBN: 9780425281703

Author website: http://www.laurachilds.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Kayt

Synopsis:

In Laura Childs’s New York Times bestselling mystery series, Suzanne, Petra, and Toni—co-owners of the Cackleberry Club Café—are back to track down another bad egg…

Maintaining good personal relationships with their suppliers is one of the secrets of the Cackleberry Club Café’s success, so Suzanne doesn’t mind going out to Mike Mullen’s dairy farm to pick up some wheels of cheese. She’s looking forward to a nice visit with the mild-mannered farmer before heading back to their hectic kitchen.

But when she arrives, Mike’s nowhere to be found. The moaning of his cows leads her to look in the barn, where she discovers a bloodcurdling sight—the farmer’s dead body. Apparently not everyone was as fond of Mike Mullen as the Cackleberry Club.

Churning with grief and outrage, Suzanne, Petra, and Toni vow to find the farmer’s murderer—but as they get closer to the truth, the desperate killer gets whipped into a frenzy and plans to put the squeeze on them…

Review:

Author Laura Childs is one of the best in the cozy genre’. She writes 3 different series and I love 2 of them. (I have not tried her scrapbooking one). Her characters are always strong and entertaining, the storylines are always fun and the mysteries are always well written. Egg Drop Dead is all of that. When you get to visit Cackleberry Club it is always a fun time, full to the brim with intrigue and mystery. The owners are the protagonist in the series, Petra, Toni and Susanna with Susanna being the main character. In this installment Susanna goes to pick up some supplies from one of her suppliers Mike Mullin. She cannot find Mike and after searching comes upon his body, what appears to be the scene of an altercation and his poor cows badly in need of being milked.

Susanna is very busy right now with the Cackleberry Club hosting a big Halloween get together and she should be planning her wedding. That does not stop her from trying to find out why anyone would want mild mannered Mike dead. There are quite a few suspects and all for completely different reasons. After all the help that the ladies have given in the past to solve murders, it is only natural they help now. Susanna asks questions, listens to gossip, searches for information and tries to find answers. What precipitated this horrific event is the question. Several suspects present themselves including of course the widow, but also an autistic teen, his over protective mother, and a weird new dairy representative. And some others as well. How will they sift through all of them and keep themselves out of the crosshairs of a killer?

The characters in this series are intelligent, humorous and just a load of fun. I enjoy the setting and have gotten to feel like I really know Susanna. Reading a book in this series is like visiting with friends, good friends. Laura Childs writing style is always entertaining and intelligent and I like to think of this series as her lower class child. While her tea series is a bit high class, the Cackleberry Club is down home! And for me that is comfortable and cozy. I enjoy the setting and the people who frequent the restaurant. Halloween is being done right and the suspense culminates at the big event.

Even if you have not read any of the other books in this series, reading Egg Drop Dead will be a pleasure. The characters are wonderful from the main ones down to someone just dropping by. Details bring the reader right into the amazing Cackleberry Club and the whole town. Author Laura Childs is one of the best cozy writers and this series is just more proof of that. Get to know the great ladies of Cackleberry Club and their friends. You will not regret a trip to this cozy setting populated with fun people.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review as part of their ongoing blog tour*