Peppermint Twisted

My first of her books, and not the last. She's one of the better cozy writers.

The author has given another installment from Abby Shaw and her candy shop. I love this style of murder mystery--not too much blood and guts--This third book introduces some new characters and brings back the familiar ones. Could it be that Abby will finally end up with that policeman beau after all? Looking forward to the next installment of murder--candy style.

This was a great lighthearted mystery. I look forward to any more that might be coming. Jean

The town of Paradise, Colorado, is gearing up for the annual arts festival. It's just weeks away. Abby Shaw, own of the local candy store Divinity, is the co-chair of the event and, therefore, very busy. But things really heat up when Meena Driggs is replaced as chair by Felicity Asbury. Not only is Meena well loved and extremely competent, but Felicity is reviled, and her first pronouncements do nothing to make the tense situation better. The next morning, Abby awakes to discover a car in her parking lot. Investigating further, she finds Felicity stabbed with an awl. Because of her involvement with the festival and the location of Felicity's body, Abby feels the immediate scrutiny of the police and the town. While she has no desire to get involved, she begins to feel she has to in order to save her reputation and keep herself out of jail. Since Felicity had no friends, the list of suspects includes her own sister and her estranged daughter and granddaughter. But who was fed up with the woman enough to kill her? It has been long enough since the second book came out that I had forgotten many of the details about the characters, but they all came back to me quickly as I once again got lost in their world. Abby is a strong lead with a bit of a short fuse. I love her. And she really seems to be growing and changing before our eyes. Once again, the story was strong with plenty of suspects and false trails. I have always felt the weakness of this series was the climax and wrap up, and unfortunately I felt the same way with this book. I really wish a couple comments from the last few pages had been elaborated further. Still, Abby's fans will be quite happy to welcome her back into their lives. And peppermint lovers (like me) will welcome the addition of four new candy recipes, two of them peppermint themed. Here's hoping we don't have to wait nearly as long for Abby's next case.

It's that time of the year again. Time for the annual arts festival and Felicity Asbury, wealthy and as nasty as one can be, becomes the festival director. The participants of the festival are up in arms about it. Not much later Felicity is found dead in the parking lot of Divinity, Abby Shaw's candy shop. Evidence points to Abby as the suspect and she gets to work to clear her name. Some authors will start right off with a murder and we never get to know the victim. Not the case here. There is an entertaining scene where readers are introduced to Felicity. The author did a great job making me hate her, so when she turned up dead, well, I can't say that I would miss her! I have read the two previous books in the series and I loved them. Abby was likable from the very start. She is smart and has common sense. I have to say I was disappointed with her in this one. She immediately dug into the investigation. I had a problem with the way she went about it. She was overly aggressive to the point of harassment. Then she couldn't figure out why no one wanted to talk to her. This attitude went on through most of the book. Thankfully, somewhere towards the end, she settled down and became the Abby that I was familiar with and liked in the previous two books. I was also saddened that Jawarksi, Abby's kinda boyfriend and a detective with the Paradise Police Department, was mostly absent from this one. There is a small B story which involves him, but that is pretty much it. The chemistry seemed to be missing this time. I hope it doesn't sound like I didn't enjoy this book because I did. The story was a good one. I couldn't figure out who did it or why, and I was satisfied with the conclusion. I look forward to the next in the series. I just hope that we don't have to wait for it as long as we did this one. As with the previous two books in the series Candy Apple Dead and Chocolate Dipped Death recipes that are mentioned in the book are included at the end. These books are written in first person.