Series: Cookie Shop Mystery #1 (Standalone)
Publication Date: 20th June 2023
Genre: Contemporary Cozy Mystery
3.5 Stars (for the recipes at the back)
One Liner: Interesting premise, okayish execution
Mallory Monroe’s Cookie Shop is a bustling place in Wingate, Connecticut. She had purchased it from her late aunt (who inspired her passion to bake cookies) and revamped the interiors and menu. Life should be going good for her, but alas!
Mallory finds her boyfriend cheating on her. The next day, she ends up having a faceoff with Beatrice Wright, aka Queen Bea (the local food blogger), about a cookie recipe. When Mallory finds Beatrice dead (murdered) in her home that night, she becomes a primary suspect.
People cancel orders and seem more interested in gossip. Mallory decides she needs to clear her name to save her beloved Cookie Shop. However, Beatrice ruffled many feathers, and the suspect list is long. Can Mallory prove herself innocent and catch the killer?
The story comes in Mallory’s limited third-person POV.
My Thoughts:
I love food cozy mysteries as they combine delicious food and murder. This one is no different and has loads of cookies, a dead body, and several suspects. The cover is super cute with a cookie bouquet, which features multiple times in the book.
All the scenes involving cookie baking and decorating are my favorite. Unfortunately, I’m not good at both (sigh!), but I sure enjoy reading about the process.
The mystery has an intriguing premise, with a cookie recipe as the possible cause of rift and murder. However…
My biggest issue is with the main character, Mallory. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t connect to her or even feel sad for her. Since the story comes from her POV (in the third person), it’s hard to enjoy her sleuthing. Never mind that she manages to antagonize almost every person she meets in the process. I know amateur sleuths are clumsy, but she takes it to the next level. Many of her interactions make me wonder how she worked in the advertising industry for so long before a shift in careers.
As someone who enjoys this genre, I go into the first book in the series with fewer expectations. That’s because these books mostly focus on establishing the setting and characters and tend to have weaker mysteries.
Here, there are quite a few issues with execution and character development. Except for Kip and Aspen, the rest feel artificial and one-dimensional (too many characters too). The only difference is that K & A manage to create interest despite the lack of depth.
The chosen POV did not help. Mallory doesn’t make it easy to empathize with her. I don’t mind flawed MCs, but she isn’t engaging enough to carry the book on her shoulders. She should have been with her love for mysteries and a cat named Agatha, but nope.
The mystery is actually well done. The red herrings are justified, and the reveal makes sense. It could have been better if the pacing was consistent instead of being clunky.
The ending is rather cute and is immediately followed by three recipes for the most mentioned cookies in the book. Now, that’s enough for me to add 0.5 to the rating. ;)
To summarize, How the Murder Crumbles is a fairly decent cozy mystery but could have been better with a different POV and better execution. I’ll read book two to see if things get better (I hope they do).
Thank you, NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books, for the eARC.
#NetGalley #HowtheMurderCrumbles
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