Chocolate is always good, but the plot was obvious! Nice, quick, EASY whodunit. ( )

It's nice to rate a cozy mystery 3 stars. I've had slim pickings lately, plus I'm not a generous rater. Though the cozy mystery is my favorite genre, and though I do like to read them from cover to cover, they lack the brilliance of a real puzzler. Most of the struggle the amateur detective goes through is because he or in this case, she, is ahead of the police because of chance or due to being singled out for endangerment. All of that is true here.

Nevertheless, my favorite minor characters are back, though as usual they do not appear in the end. Well if they had I'd have given this book one more point. Brenda especially has ample time to shine. The nondescript Lindy and her family are not here to mar the fun. Hogan gets a taste of the action. He's okay in my book. It was thrilling when Lee suddenly announced that she'd solved everything. It was an intense moment in the book, and had the solution been brilliant then it would have bowled me over. The truth is that I had a stab at who the guilty were and my guesses were right. Both times. I even hazarded mentally that such and such person had invented a character for his purposes. So yeah, the epiphany of Lee was still welcome. It happens rarely in a mundane lifetime. It happened thrice to me in my life. The moment when a light bursts into your mind with the wattage of a supernova. Look at me, I'm waxing lyrical.

This has surely to do with my reluctance to leave this series. How come discworld contains 38 books and I have only 11 Joanna Carl books at my disposal. Joanna Carl is a pseudonym but whatever, she's the author, and she's old. At 77 years, I'm amazed at her creativity. I wish I hadn't run out of The Chocoholic series. This is Miss Marple all over again. I have to say that my favorite authors are all women. Men mostly seem to write science fiction and non fiction and nowadays zombie takes on the usual stories. Not a fan. Until next time. ( )

It took four or five chapters before I actually got into this book. From the 'campy' pirates who boarded boats to dance a jig, to dead bodies, to a nerd named Byron, the book finally turned into a semi-page turner. The book includes lots of chocolate trivia but I wish the author would include some of the recipes for the yummy chocolate mentioned in the book. I do feel the author is running out of steam in this series. It seems she is searching for ideas. This book was enjoyable but I am not waiting for more with the anticipation I have in the past. ( )