Fudge and Jury         

A Bakeshop Mystery, #5

By Ellie Alexander      

ISBN: 9781250088055 

Website: www.elliealexander.co

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra                   

Summary:

It’s almost spring in Ashland, Oregon, and the town is preparing for the Shakespeare and the annual Chocolate Festival. Business is cookin’ at Torte, and the store is expanding as Jules’ team whips up crêpes filled with mascarpone cheese and dark chocolate. Torte stands a chance of being this year’s confectionery belle of the ball! Life couldn’t be sweeter—unless murder taints the batter.

Evan Rowe, of Confections Couture, makes a chocolate fountain that would put Willy Wonka to shame, and his truffles are to die for—literally? Yes, the world-renowned chocolatier has just turned up dead…right after sampling a slice of Jules’ decadent four-layer chocolate cake. Now all eyes are on Jules as she tries to find the mysterious ingredient in her own recipe. Can she sift out the truth before another contestant bites the buttercream? (Goodreads)

Review:

The fifth book in the Bakeshop Mystery series, Fudge and Jury by Ellie Alexander is yet another fine addition to this series. In this story we find Torte undergoing renovations as the store gets new ovens and a bit of a facelift in the kitchen area.

Additionally, Torte has the honour of having a featured role at the annual Chocolate Festival!  As Jules (aka Juliet) and her mom, Helen set their booth up for the festival a chocolatier, Evan Rowe, of Confections Couture, is perusing near by booths to his booth, which includes Torte’s booth. After Evan samples a slice of cake at the Torte booth the man has a severe allergic reaction and dies. At first, it is thought the man died due to his nut allergy but Jules adamantly states there are no nuts in the cake and there was no cross-contamination. We shall have to see what the coroner says! Seems to me that a man with such a severe peanut allergy attending a conference with perhaps many confections and baked goods that contain nuts – why was he not carrying his EpiPen on his person? And Evan’s assistant Carter took an inordinate amount of time finding and bringing the EpiPen to Evan and by the time he had – Evan died.

And as is to be expected – Jules must find out what really happened so that Torte’s reputation is not ruined nor any of the other participants are accused of facilitating Evan’s death. Along the road to the truth, there are many red herrings to keep the story interesting and Jules sleuthing. We also got to experience the local police (The Professor – aka Doug and Thomas) working the case. So who will figure out what really happened to Evan first?

The reader also gets to read about the growing relationship between Jules and Thomas (a local policeman). Additionally – the relationship between Helen and the professor. I quite enjoy more than one love story being pursued in this series – can’t wait to see how each turns out.

My favourite quote:

“I remember my mentor in culinary school had a poster in his office with a quote from George Bernard Shaw that read: “There is no sincerer love than the love of food.” It was a philosophy that I had learned watching Mom serve customers for years – a pastry with a side of love.”

As to be expected, the amateur sleuths figure out “whodunit” in a timely fashion. I am not inclined to put more of that in my review as it is for each reader to wander through the quagmire and discover for themselves who did the dead and why. But what I can say is that this is a well crafted cozy mystery that kept me guessing ‘til the end – just the way I like my cozy mysteries. With good character development (and knowing there are many, many more books in the series to read) of many of the supporting characters as well as the main characters – I feel like I will have many sleepless nights reading this series.

I must say that the cover art in all of the books in this series to date are definitely eye catching.

If cozy mysteries are your “genre” then the “A Bakeshop Mystery” series by Ellie Alexander may be right up your alley. I know it is up mine 🙂 …Onwards to book #6!