Review by Booklist Review
Jacobia ""Jake"" Tiptree, co-owner of the Chocolate Moose, Eastport, Maine's chocolate-themed bakery, has a loud, public argument with obnoxious podcaster Henry Hadlyme. When Hadlyme is found murdered in the bakery's basement, skewered with Jake's husband's cutlass (and with their grandson's stuffed parrot attached to Hadlyme's shoulder), Jake naturally becomes the chief suspect. Fearing her imminent arrest, Jake, along with good friend Ellie White, begins to investigate. Although the state-police detective seems to believe in Jake's innocence, Jake doesn't trust her. A long-ago suicide may be connected to the murder and must be looked into as well. Then, after the town is attacked, shelled by persons unknown from a sailboat docked in the harbor, Jake and Ellie have something else to investigate. The over-the-top, largely unbelievable main plot gets in the way, but there are plenty of appeal elements to compensate: the ever-sympathetic main characters, the close relationships Jake has with her multigenerational family, the beautifully described coastal Maine setting, and the baking frame.--Sue O'Brien Copyright 2020 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Pirates have arrived in Eastport, Maine, for the Eastport Pirate Festival in Graves's entertaining third Death by Chocolate mystery (after 2019's Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake), and costumed tourists and townspeople are swashbuckling all over town. Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree and Ellie White, partners in the Chocolate Moose bakery, have survived the kids' party they threw for the rampaging young scallywags and buccaneers, but an encounter with the supremely unpleasant TV food personality Henry Hadlyme provokes Jake into threatening the man in public, not a good idea as it turns out. Eastport's police chief, Bob Arnold, inconveniently finds Jake in the bakery's cellar with a very dead Henry, pierced by a cutlass that belongs to Jake's husband. Jake is, of course, the prime suspect, and she and Ellie are soon chasing down leads to clear her name and find the real killer. Plenty of suspects and a mysterious sailing ship make for an intriguing puzzle. Cozy fans are sure to have fun. Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Literary. (Mar.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Notch another corpse for Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree (Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake, 2019, etc.).After slowly working its way out of the red, Jake's sweet shop is now one of the linchpins of the revitalized business district of Eastport, Maine. But she and her partner, Ellie White, are less than thrilled when Henry Hadlyme, star of the food tourism show Eat This! offers to include The Chocolate Moose on his podcast Eating on the Edge! which highlights off-the-beaten-track purveyors of New England fare. Hadlyme seems a little slimy to Jake and Ellie, and his interest in their treats seems less than sincere. But when he calls Jake "missy," that's it; the two chocolateers boot him out of their shop. He comes back with a vengeanceor at least, his corpse does. It turns up in the basement of the Moose with a stuffed parrot pinned to its shoulder and a cutlass jabbed through its chest in a gruesome nod to the ongoing Eastport Pirate Festival. Jake would love to present police chief Bob Arnold with a convenient alternative to charging her with Hadlyme's murder. And there's no dearth of suspects: A surreptitious trip to the Eat This! production trailer lets Jake know that pretty much everyone involved with the show hated Hadlyme. But finding out exactly who croaked the curmudgeonand offering the chief some proofproves to be a challenge to Jake's and Ellie's ingenuity, health, and welfare.A treat for aficionados of shopkeeper-sleuth cozies. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
