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iffer 's review for:
Death by Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake
by Sarah Graves
Part of my lukewarm response to this was likely the fact that I was just not in the mood for this sort of book, as well as the fact that this is the first in a series, but it is a spinoff series, so I wasn't as connected/knowledgeable about the characters as I would've preferred.
That said, this felt really long, like the denouement lasted at least 1/3 of the book. As a reader of a mystery, I shouldn't be thinking, "But there was already a car chase, a shooting, and a kidnapping. Why isn't this over yet?" I also became somewhat frustrated with the author's redundancy. How many times does the main character have to say something like, "But we have to get these 28 cheesecakes made in time?" I mean, yeah, I guess that's a concern if you're a baker for a living, but it just seemed like the main character was stupid for prioritizing cheesecakes over her recovering-from-a-heart-attack-father, missing son, and killers after her. The author also kept repeating the old trope in cozies about how the main characters needed to find the real killer to exonerate themselves. Normally I can suspend my disbelief about this, but it was said too many times, and it just seemed silly for the main character not to report to the police, repeatedly, even after being in a car chase and shot at. I mean, it's an affluent white woman in a cozy mystery; she really doesn't have anything to fear from the tiny town police.
That said, this felt really long, like the denouement lasted at least 1/3 of the book. As a reader of a mystery, I shouldn't be thinking, "But there was already a car chase, a shooting, and a kidnapping. Why isn't this over yet?" I also became somewhat frustrated with the author's redundancy. How many times does the main character have to say something like, "But we have to get these 28 cheesecakes made in time?" I mean, yeah, I guess that's a concern if you're a baker for a living, but it just seemed like the main character was stupid for prioritizing cheesecakes over her recovering-from-a-heart-attack-father, missing son, and killers after her. The author also kept repeating the old trope in cozies about how the main characters needed to find the real killer to exonerate themselves. Normally I can suspend my disbelief about this, but it was said too many times, and it just seemed silly for the main character not to report to the police, repeatedly, even after being in a car chase and shot at. I mean, it's an affluent white woman in a cozy mystery; she really doesn't have anything to fear from the tiny town police.