Murder at First Slice (Baker Street Mystery Book # 5) by Valerie Burns

Social media queen-turned-small-town baker Maddy Montgomery, her feisty friends, and her faithful English mastiff know you have to break a few eggs to solve a murder. . .

As Maddy’s wedding day approaches, friends and family descend on the little town of New Bison, Michigan, to celebrate—so much so that Maddy wonders if there might be another happily-ever-after in store for her widowed father and innkeeper Mrs. Law. Unfortunately, she also has to deal with an unhappy couple: feuding cousins Hannah and Dorothy, who haven’t spoken in decades. Maddy can only hope the spectacular wedding cake crafted by her head baker doesn’t wind up as ammunition in a food fight.

But she doesn’t have to wait long for a wedding disaster to strike. When the imperious Dorothy crashes the rehearsal dinner—with several uninvited guests in tow—and starts battering everyone with constant complaints, the drama reaches reality-show levels. And the next day, Dorothy is dead . . . with Hannah standing over the body, bloody rolling pin in hand.

Nobody in town believes Miss Hannah could commit murder. But a detective newly relocated from New York doesn’t know the sweet, memory-challenged Hannah the way the locals do—and the evidence seems open-and-shut as an oven. Now, with her sous-sleuths the Baker Street Irregulars, the bride-to-be is busy digging into Dorothy’s past to catch a killer before she cuts the cake . . .  (Summary via Goodreads)

Murder at First Slice is the fifth book in the Baker Street Mystery series by Valerie Burns and the first one of the series that I have read.  However, even though I have not read any of the previous books, as soon as I started reading, it was easy to get into the story.  Burns writes it so that you get caught up instantly and fall in love immediately.

And I have to say Murder at First Slice is a pretty good book to start with if you haven't read any of the previous ones.  

In Murder at First Slice main character Maddy is a week away from getting married.  Her and Michael, the groom, have their wedding party set, the venue is booked, the wedding list is done, and close family and friends are arriving in town for some pre-wedding festivities.

Unfortunately, a few family members not welcomed show up. Dorothy, Miss Hannah's cousin shows up with her husband, her nurse and her husband's assistant.  Miss Hannah, Michael's grandmother, has not spoken to Dorothy in about forty years and refused to attend the wedding if Dorothy is there.

Well, that ends up not being a problem because Maddy finds Dorothy's body and Miss Hannah standing nearby with a bloody rolling pin.

Everyone knows that there is no way that Miss Hannah would harm someone, let alone kill them, so Maddy and her crew do what they do .... look into the murder and all involved.

So, the week before Maddy is going to walk down the aisle in a beautiful wedding dress and marry the man of her dreams, she has to solve a murder .... in between all the wedding festivities.  No worries she's got this !!

I highly recommend this series, and I plan to try to go back and read the previous books.  If this one was this FUN, I can only imagine the others !!!

Wildcat Academy (Berkshire Hilltown Mysteries Book # 4) by Leslie Wheeler

A family reunion turns deadly.

When Boston library curator Kathryn Stinson reconnects with her estranged mother during a visit to the Berkshires, she's pulled into a new family circle at a secluded private academy.

The weekend takes a dark turn when the teenage son Kathryn's new sister-in-law is found dead beneath a forbidden zipline, a place he had no reason to be. As doubts mount about whether his death was an accident or murder, the boy's mother turns to Kathryn for help.

A tense, atmospheric mystery, WILDCAT ACADEMY is the fourth book in the Berkshire Hilltown Mysteries series by Leslie Wheeler.  (Summary via Goodreads)

Wildcat Academy is the fourth book in the Berkshire Hilltown Mystery series by Leslie Wheeler.  In this series main character Kathryn Stinson spends her weeks working in Boston as a library curator while her weekends are spent in the house she rents in the Berkshire.  She also spends her weekend time with her boyfriend Earl who lives up the mountain a bit.

However, in Wildcat Academy Kathryn is spending time with her mother, her mother's husband Bob and his daughter Skylar.  The family is visiting from California to spend parent's weekend with Skylar's son, Tigran who is attending Wildcat Academy.  

Unfortunately, when they arrive to the school to shadow Tig and see how he spends his time, he is not there.  When they finally persuade the school officials to conduct a search, they find him dead at the zipline course.  This brings up a lot of questions especially seeing as Tig would never go up on the zipline as he is afraid of heights.

Since the school and the police do not seem to have any answers and the investigation isn't going anywhere, Skylar asks Kathryn to help her look into Tig's death.  This could be difficult with Skylar in California and Kathryn in Boston during the week, but Skylar is in a deep state of grief that Kathryn cannot say no.

Things get really dangerous when Skylar comes back and is adamant about finding out what happened to her son ... putting herself and Kathryn in a scary situation .....

Readers will love this series and this fourth book.  Wheeler knows how to draw you into the story so much so that you will want to spend your weekends in the Berkshires.  

Homicide on the Range (A Hometown Mystery Book # 6) by Rosalie Spielman

From author Rosalie Spielman comes a wild western homicide!

US Army retiree Tessa Treslow is ready for a much-needed and romantic getaway with her boyfriend, Nick, to volunteer on a dude ranch for recovering combat veterans in Montana. What she gets instead is a whole crew from her little town of New Oslo, Idaho, tagging along. Her BFF Freddie, aka Deputy Frederickson, her aunt Edna, and the Prunn sisters are happy for a little vacation as well, but little do they realize, it's not going to be the rustic, idyllic visit to the range that they think it will be.

The other volunteers at the ranch are a variety of characters, from a jealous wife, to a multi-limb amputee, to a blast from Tessa's past, and a combative and unpleasant ranch cook. When the cook ends up dead along with sides of beef in the walk-in freezer, Tessa realizes the one of them is also a murderer! With Freddie stranded in town, Tessa teams up with the New Osloans—the only ones she can be sure didn't commit the crime—to take a closer look at the other volunteers. They soon learn that each and every cowboy wannabe knew the cook for more than just her buttery cooking, and each of them had a motive to want her dead.

To make matters much worse, not one but two wildfires are closing in on the ranch and cutting them off from the outside. What results is a locked-room style mystery where the crew from New Oslo are unsure which will prove more dangerous—a murderer or the wildfires!

" Clever & Compelling Gem! An excellent read and high on my list for 2023 honors."
~Kings River Life Magazine

"You will also fall in love with New Oslo and its residents and businesses. You will want to pack a bag and jump in your car and head there as fast as you can!"
~ Cozy Mystery Book Reviews    (Summary via Goodreads)

Homicide on the Range is the sixth book in the Hometown Mystery Book series by Rosalie Spielman and I don't know if I have ever read a murder story where pretty much everyone admits to being the murderer.  Well, in Homicide on the Range it is clear from the get-go that no one liked the deceased person but come on !!!

In Homicide on the Range Tessa and her boyfriend Nick have decided to volunteer at a friend's dude ranch that specializes in veterans that are in some stage of recovery.  They go to the ranch and have therapy sessions, talk to others that can relate and help out on the ranch.  Well, if you know Tessa's friends and a few relatives, you know they always want in on the fun, so the whole gang goes to the dude ranch, some just to help out.

Little did any of them know that they were signing up for way more than they bargained for.  But they will do what they do best .... work together to get the job done.

Almost as soon as they arrive Tessa realizes one of the other guests is someone from her past, unfortunately Josie came out of the Army with a lot of battle scars, inside and out.  Tessa and the crew also learn that no one likes the cook, Aimee Orinoco, and they can see why. It seems like she knows how to push peoples' buttons.

Sadly, before they can really get settled and start enjoying their duties on the ranch, they find that the ranch may be in danger with wildfires happening nearby.  Tessa's best friend and Sheriff's Deputy back home, goes into town with Hannie one of the owners to get supplies but are unable to return due to the danger of the fire.

Then when Orinoco, who is the cook, doesn't show up to make breakfast and a search is performed, Ginny finds her dead in the walk-in freezer.  After discussing it with JJ, who owns the ranch with his wife Hannie, it is decided to keep Orinoco's death a secret and try to investigate without anyone figuring it out.

Tessa and crew have a lot to deal with due to the wildfires getting closer, Orinoco's death, and people are not quite themselves due to all the stress.  Then when everyone slowly realizes the danger they are in and that Orinoco was murdered, almost all of them admit to killing her.....

Readers will love the danger and excitement of Homicide on the Range.  You will be on the edge of your seat throughout the entire book.  How can there be so much drama in one story ?  Well, here it is !!  

I usually never try to figure out the guilty party in a story.  I tend to just read the book and stay in the mind of the main character and let them lead me through.  But man, was it crazy in Tessa's mind this time.  And when the actual murderer is revealed .... mind blown !!!

A Delicious Deception (Key West Food Critic Mystery Book # 16) by Lucy Burdette

Mother-to-be Hayley Snow bites off more than she can chew in the sixteenth installment of Lucy Burdette’s USA Today bestselling Key West Food Critic mysteries.

When Sheriff’s Deputy Darcy Rogers asks Hayley for a small favor, she can’t say no. Nine months pregnant and temporarily benched from her food critic duties, Hayley’s itching for a distraction and eager to help. All she has to do is tag along while a young woman picks up her daughter from her father at Monroe County’s safe custody exchange location. Easy, right?

Wrong.

In the chaos of the Sheriff’s Office open house, the mother disappears. Then the father bolts, leaving Hayley with a terrified girl and the realization that something has gone terribly wrong. Hayley and Deputy Rogers head north up the Keys to search for answers.

When a body turns up, Hayley realizes this isn’t just a missing-persons case—it’s a race against time. With the little girl’s safety at risk, Hayley must trust her instincts—and her heart—to uncover the truth.  (Summary via Goodreads)

A Delicious Deception is the sixteenth book in the Key West Food Critic Mystery series by Lucy Burdette and this series has a special place in my heart.  I'll be honest and tell you that I have not read all of the books in the series, I started reading them with the eighth book, Death on the Menu but I was instantly hooked.  While visiting my mom in Florida I was reading one of the books and my mom showed an interest, so I left it for her to read.  She has been gone for four and a half years so when I read one of these books, I feel like she is looking over my shoulder.

Anyway..... let's get to this newest book.  In A Delicious Deception there are a lot of changes occurring.  Main character Hayley and her husband, Nathan, are expecting their first baby so they have moved out of their houseboat and into a house with a guest cottage in the back.  Their neighbor and good friend, Miss Gloria and her best friend Annie, who both lived in houseboats are now living in the guest cottage. 

Hayley should be concentrating on getting ready for the baby but when Deputy Darcy from the Sheriff's Office comes calling for help, she cannot say no.  After all, this should be an easy assist.  She is going to be picking up a woman, Reba, and taking her to a safe location to do a custody exchange with the husband.  Reba and her husband, Mack, do not get along and instead of fight in front of their daughter, Tamara, they have agreed to allow a third party to be there for the exchange,

Unfortunately, before the exchange Reba goes to the bathroom and never returns.  Then after looking for her and not finding her, Hayley goes to meet Mack, and he seems very nervous and leaves abruptly ..... with Hayley standing there with Tamara.

Deputy Darcy gets in trouble with her bosses and taken off the case, so Hayley takes Tamara to a friend of hers for a brief playdate, but Tamara is taken by someone pretending to be with child services.

Meanwhile Nathan gets called away when his father is taken to the hospital and having emergency surgery.  

So, Hayley, who is extremely pregnant, is on the case mainly alone.  Yes, she has Miss Gloria and Annie helping her, but she needs Nathan's levelheadedness because we know she is stubborn and doesn't know when to quit. 

A Delicious Deception, with all its new changes, is a great read.  No matter what book in this series you pick up, you will be hooked immediately !!!