I liked this book at first. It seemed like a usual cozy, culinary mystery, but after a while I felt as if the characters kept circling the same series of events (like the author needed to fill space to get a certain number of pages for the book). Also, while it is good to not reveal too much at the beginning, this author had a habit of revealing things out of the blue. (The death of the father of a main character and another character being the half sister of the senior constable being the two main ones I remember amidst several smaller ones.) ( )

For me, one of the attractions of this novel was a new-to-me female Aussie author, followed closely by the setting in Hobart, Tasmania.

The overall feeling with this novel is chicklit/mystery which is probably not totally my cup of tea. However there is a murder to be solved, and some interesting characters to get to know. There are plenty of Amazon reviewers, mostly younger than me I suspect, who have loved it. There is a strong sense of setting and the portrayal of Hobart as a place for the young.

There are recipes at the end of the book for those who would like to try some of Tabitha Darling's food for themselves.

Well done. ( )

I had no idea that Livia Day is the alter ego of Tansy Rayner Roberts who is an award winning Australian fantasy author, this year receiving The Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. A Trifle Dead is her first delightful Australian cosy mystery and I am hoping it won’t be her last.

Set in Tasmania, A Trifle Dead introduces twenty something cafe owner Tabitha Darling. Café La Femme attracts a wide clientele from urban hipsters to the entire local police force determined to keep an eye on the late police superintendent’s daughter. When a body is found hanging from netting in one of the upstairs flats, the police are convinced it was an accidental death, linking the man to a number of recent bizarre crimes around town. Tabitha isn’t so sure though and with the assistance of blogger Stewart McTavish, much to the chagrin of Detective Leo Bishop, finds herself right in the middle of a sticky situation.

Tabitha is feisty, stubborn and funny with an obsession with food and vintage clothing. She has a complicated relationship with just about everyone in her life from her head baker Nin, to her best friend, Xanthippe and the long term object of her affection, the handsome yet taciturn detective Bishop, which leads to great banter, loaded with snark and sparks. The sense of community established by the author is appealing and I really enjoyed being introduced to the slightly weird yet wonderful characters that are connected to Tabitha, such as her cross dressing roommate and her enigmatic landlord.

The mystery twists nicely and though I made the connections early on, I didn’t really mind at all. The plot generates plenty of tension as the villain moves in on Tabitha and the pace is comfortable. A Trifle Dead is well written and though I wasn’t keen on McTavish’s accented dialogue (he is Scottish), it was only a minor distraction.

A Trifle Dead is a light, funny and enjoyable read blending mystery, humour and a touch of romance. Oh and there are delicious recipes on the final few pages, ideal for an aspiring foodie or any reader with a sweet tooth. I am looking forward to the next installment. ( )

Tabitha Darling is the daughter of a recently demised, much missed police superintendent and his wife, a recently moved to Queensland, much missed cook for the local police station. She's trying to run her own dessert destination café in the centre of Hobart, but no matter how hard she tries to adjust the menu to suit the sort of clientele she'd like to be attracting, the place is overrun with police nostalgic for canteen style pies.

She's also only slightly reluctant to leap into the role of accidental detective when a rather bizarre death is discovered in the flat upstairs from her café. Which is further complicated by the discovery that her landlord (and obviously that of the band renting the flat where the dead body was found), Darrow, seems to be flying under the radar. Maybe because Darling's old school-friend, and Darrow's recent girlfriend, Xanthippe is in town and not amused with him at all. Of course Tabitha can't help but assist, what with her combined superpowers of gossip, custard production and being irresistible to Police Sergeants she is obviously destined to be of huge assistance to the local constabulary. If only they realised.

At some time in the not too distant future I'm going to go out and glare at the first cute puppy I see. Well a photo of one anyway. Because I'm not getting soft in the head. Although I wouldn't exactly call this cosy, it's definitely one of those mildly daft central female characters doing the whole accidental detective thing, getting all distracted by manly men standing way too close, and obsessed with Trifle production. Which I, somewhat surprisingly, liked a lot.

Part of the reason it was so enjoyable is that there's nothing maliciously daft about Tabitha. In fact there's a distinct feeling that her tongue is quite firmly placed in her cheek. She's surrounded by a fabulous cast of supporting characters, including blogger Stewart McTavish (yes even the character names... ), a bit of romantic tension that's not really all that tense and some utterly fabulous household goings on. I will confess that most of the brand names and obsessions with fashion wizzed past in a blur of "no idea" whatsoever, but at the same time there were points when I found myself laughing.

None of which would mean a thing if there wasn't also a good, twisty plot with plenty of deducting opportunities and a nice sense of realness about everyone. Which was helped a lot by a clever writing trick giving the community of characters a back-story without having to spell it out. Which shouldn't be surprising as even though this is a "debut" novel, the author is writing under a pseudonym.

Somebody recommended A TRIFLE DEAD to me, and at the time I did wonder about their sanity because it sounded a lot like everything I don't like. Turns out I was wrong, even though it did come with recipes... On second thoughts make that a puppy and a kitten...

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/trifle-dead-livia-day ( )

A Trifle Dead by Livia Day is the first crime book by renowned fantasy author Tansy Rayner Roberts. Since I love her fantasy books, I was expecting to enjoy A Trifle Dead. What I didn't particularly expect was to read it in a single evening (including staying up in bed until it was over). And I don't even like food.

Tabitha Darling has always had a dab hand for pastry and a knack for getting into trouble. Which was fine when she was a tearaway teen, but not so useful now she’s trying to run a hipster urban café, invent the perfect trendy dessert, and stop feeding the many (oh so unfashionable) policemen in her life.

When a dead muso is found in the flat upstairs, Tabitha does her best (honestly) not to interfere with the investigation, despite the cute Scottish blogger who keeps angling for her help. Her superpower is gossip, not solving murder mysteries, and those are totally not the same thing, right?

But as that strange death turns into a string of random crimes across the city of Hobart, Tabitha can’t shake the unsettling feeling that maybe, for once, it really is ALL ABOUT HER.

And maybe she’s figured out the deadly truth a trifle late…

Needless to say, I really loved A Trifle Dead. Tabitha is plucky and keeps sticking her nose into police business. It's just as well that she knows just about all of the police force, thanks to her father being the former superintendent, and can ply them with delicious café food.

I really loved the picture the author painted of Hobart. I've only visited Hobart once, but I had no difficulty imagining the various settings. It also made me want to move to visit Hobart again. The setting also extended to numerous pop-culture references, from obscure super heroes to Tumblr and Twitter. They made me smile many times. It's also this aspect of geek culture that I think makes this crime novel particularly accessible to a lot of spec fic fans (compared with some other miscellaneous crime novel). It also makes it a very "now" book, but I'm not convinced that's a bad thing.

There's a bit of a love triangle in A Trifle Dead but unlike in many other books (admittedly many of which are YA, but still), Tabitha does not spend very much time angsting about boys, or even thinking that much about them while more important things are happening. And the love triangle wasn't used to generate tension — that's what the plot was for. I was left with the overwhelming sense that this is how actual adults people might behave. This is how you love triangle.

On the topic of the crime aspect, I didn't guess whodunnit before it was revealed, although once it was, all the hints from earlier fit nicely into place. Which is mostly what I want out of a mystery. (It's no fun if you work it out far earlier than the characters and then have to heckle the page over their slowness.)

A Trifle Dead is a delightful read. I enjoyed it immensely and could not put it down. I highly recommend it to pretty much everyone. I'm sure crime fans will enjoy it if the blurb appeals, but because of the pop culture references I suspect it will have higher appeal to spec fic fans than other crime novels. I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.

5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. ( )