The Cakes Of Wrath is the fourth book in the A Piece of Cake Mystery series.

Rita has been "roped" in to joining the a small, local business alliance. The first meeting was a rather heated one. Most members wanted to remove Destiny from the rolls, as she hasn't been to one meeting. After the meeting, Rita was standing on the sidewalk talking to Destiny's husband, when a careening van almost hits them. The fact that Moose tackled and pushed her out the way, saved her life. the next day Rita discovers that her prescription pain pills is missing. The only person that could have taken them is Destiny, a known drug user. When Rita goes to confront Destiny at her husbands chopper shop, she is dead and Rita's prescription bottle it right next to her.

To make matters even worse, the detective on the case is pretty much stalking Rita and doing everything he can to arrest her for the murder.

The characters from the previous books are back to lend a hand to Rita. And add to the mix, Rita must deal with Pearl Lee, Miss Frankie cousin. Pearl Lee hasn't met a man she doesn't love and Rita is supposed to keep her walking the straight and narrow.

A very enjoyable series where the reader can also get the feel for what goes behind the scenes in a specialty cake bakery.

Book includes delicious looking recipes.

Will be looking forward to the next book in the series. ( )

I'm beginning to think my vow of removing average or below average cozies from my shelves is going to leave me with nothing left to read.

I could write a long review about why I think The Cakes of Wrath fell short, with specific examples, and quotes, but suffice it to say that I found it disappointing.

Rita isn't the most likeable MC I've ever read, but she's a far, far distance from being the most unlikeable. But her supposed best friend, Ox, takes whatever chance he can get to point out to her how he could be doing a better job of running her cake shop than she is. Her mother-in-law/business partner (Rita is widowed) is such a meddling, manipulative...I-don't-know-what; she alone makes me want to hurl the book across the room. If the Southern iron-fist-in-velvet-glove represents the line, then Rita's mother-in-law is about a dozen steps over it.

Then there's the "love triangle" - Rita is openly playing the field between bar owner Gabriel and police investigator Sullivan (who isn't even IN this book - he's on a fishing trip. I'd have liked to have gone with him.) In case love triangles weren't annoying enough, this one moves slower than a glacier in January. It might as well be non-existent.

Then there's Rita's behaviour throughout the plot - steamrolling her way through the neighbourhood, interrogating "suspects" and claiming to all and sundry that she knows who the killer is. She tells people - everyone! - exactly who she thinks the killer is. Not just her friends - everyone! It teeters on slander. Of course she's wrong, and of course the killer is pretty obvious (well, to me anyway). The investigator in charge of the case runs around after her making completely absurd accusations with absolutely no factual basis; if I were a police officer reading this book I'd be crazy offended.

The ending felt - odd. Well, the set up for the ending felt odd.

Rita's cousin goes storming off to have it out with her boyfriends obsessive stalker, but Rita finds her not 10 minutes later calmly sitting down with said stalker having tea!


Guess this review wasn't as short as I intended it to be when I started, but yeah - disappointing read. Maybe I'm getting too picky, but I prefer my mysteries and their characters to be more subtly written, I guess. ( )

The Cakes Of Wrath is the fourth book in the A Piece of Cake Mystery series.

Rita has been "roped" in to joining the a small, local business alliance. The first meeting was a rather heated one. Most members wanted to remove Destiny from the rolls, as she hasn't been to one meeting. After the meeting, Rita was standing on the sidewalk talking to Destiny's husband, when a careening van almost hits them. The fact that Moose tackled and pushed her out the way, saved her life. the next day Rita discovers that her prescription pain pills is missing. The only person that could have taken them is Destiny, a known drug user. When Rita goes to confront Destiny at her husbands chopper shop, she is dead and Rita's prescription bottle it right next to her.

To make matters even worse, the detective on the case is pretty much stalking Rita and doing everything he can to arrest her for the murder.

The characters from the previous books are back to lend a hand to Rita. And add to the mix, Rita must deal with Pearl Lee, Miss Frankie cousin. Pearl Lee hasn't met a man she doesn't love and Rita is supposed to keep her walking the straight and narrow.

A very enjoyable series where the reader can also get the feel for what goes behind the scenes in a specialty cake bakery.

Book includes delicious looking recipes.

Will be looking forward to the next book in the series. ( )