A review by theavidreaderandbibliophile
A Pie to Die For by Gretchen Rue

2.0

A Pie to Die For by Gretchen Rue is the debut of A Lucky Pie Mysteries. I liked the basic premise of a tourist island that is cut off from the world for the winter (I wanted to start off with something positive). I found the book to be dominated by cooking and baking. There are paragraphs with Este describing in detail what she is cooking or baking (it takes up at least forty percent of the book). There are too many characters introduced in the beginning (information overload). 0054he bad guys were overdone (remind me of cartoon villains). The mystery was very simple (and it is pushed into the background). There is a lack of suspects. Este does very little sleuthing (she is too busy cooking, baking, and flirting). Este thinks about the investigation repeating the suspects and clues. The reveal was anticlimactic (extremely). Magic is a subtle element in the story. I thought A Pie to Die For lacked depth. There were lots of different elements, but all of them were superficial. The story plods along to the end with no excitement (plenty of sandwiches, soup, and pie). As you can tell, I could not get into A Pie to Die For.