Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns

I was looking for something different from my usual, so I decided to give cozy mystery a try. I love anything baking related, so this seemed like a good start to the genre.

Description

After being left at the altar, indecisive Maddy is looking for a way to prove to the world—and especially her Admiral father—she is competently moving on with her life. When her great-aunt leaves her a house and business, Maddy sees her chance, but the inheritance comes with a catch. Maddy must run her great-aunt’s bakery for a year and take care of her 250-pound English Mastiff.

If that weren’t challenging enough, after only a few days in the small town of New Bison, the irritable mayor’s body is found in Maddy’s bakery with her fingerprints on the knife.

Characters

As someone with only a handful of shoes—all of which I bought on clearance—I had a hard time relating to Maddy, who walks around in designer heels in the middle of winter and posts pictures of everything on social media. Her desire to prove herself to her father and her stubborn spunk were nice details, but ultimately, her character fell flat. She describes herself as indecisive, but this never gets her into trouble. This character flaw supposedly formed the basis for her growth arc, but by page two, she was making decisions left and right.

She doesn’t struggle with the adjustment to a new climate, small town culture, or entrepreneurial lifestyle. She merely buys some new clothes and that’s that. The townspeople love her instantly and are super helpful, except of course, for the villains and the people who end up dead. She, in turn, instantly likes them. Her business is a success, with the only major problem, the fire, solved instantly by selling out of her detached garage. All the challenges Maddy faces resolve practically by themselves with minimal growth required from her.

In short, Maddy doesn’t grow because she’s already practically perfect. This character is far too shallow to carry one book, let alone a series. The other characters are similarly boring.

Plot

The plot follows Maddy as she begins her new life as a baker and helps the police try to solve the mayor’s murder. The villain was obvious from the start, as were the red herrings that tried to steer the reader away from the answer.

Writing Style

Burns’s prose was okay. She summarized a lot of dialogue that should have been dramatized, and depicted a lot of Maddy getting dressed that should have been summarized, but otherwise, the writing was clear and free of glaring grammatical errors.

Miscellaneous

It seemed odd to me that the police chief so readily looked to Maddy for help. I think it might actually be illegal to discuss an open investigation with someone outside the police force, but I don’t read a lot of cozy mysteries, so that might be standard for the genre.

Conclusion

I don’t read a ton of cozy mystery, so take this review with a hefty dose of salt. That said, I’d like to read more in the genre, but this wasn’t a start that would hook me. I’d be curious to know when in the author’s career she wrote this book. If this is her first book, I’d say she’s off to a decent start. I enjoyed the quirky antics of the giant dog, and anything involving baking is a win for me. If, however, this is a mid-career author, I’d say she warrants no more of my attention. A mystery writer at that stage in her career should be better able to craft three-dimensional characters and construct a plot that keeps the reader guessing. As is, Maddy has nowhere to grow through the series, and I felt like I was waiting around for the characters to realize what I had already figured out.

To be honest, I’ve already forgotten much of the book, and I just finished it yesterday. It was something different and a cute way to pass the time, but that’s all. Overall, this book is forgettable.

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Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder

Mysteries I liked Better

I don’t read a lot of cozy mysteries, so I don’t have recommendations in that genre, but here are other mysteries I liked better.

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