No Grater Danger: 07/07/20

No Grater Danger by Victoria Hamilton and Emily Woo Zeller (narrator) is the seventh Vintage Kitchen Mystery. Jaymie Layton Muller is now happily married to Jakob and has fully embraced her new role as mother to Jocie. Jocie's principal invites Jaymie to put together a history through cooking lesson as part of the school's new hands-on learning initiative. It's in her research on nutmeg graters that she gets embroiled in her next mystery.

Lois Perry, Mrs. Stubbs's cousin, has first hand knowledge that Jaymie needs for her lesson. She also has a reputation for being a grouch. She owns the land and buildings by the ferry and numerous people want to get her to sell. Meanwhile, her neighbor wants her help in putting through a historic hiking trail near their homes and she refuses. Is she cranky for cranky's sake or is there a grounded reason behind her refusals?

Jaymie who has the patience to talk to strongly opinionated elderly women becomes instant friends with Mrs. Perry. It's clear to her that Mrs. Perry's reactions are completely rational. Her home has been broken into, extremely valuable heirlooms have been stolen and nothing has been done by the police.

Things come to a head when there is an attempt on Mrs. Perry's life. Jaymie finds her alive, in time that she'll probably recover. But from evidence left behind it was very clearly not an accident. Soon after, there's a murder on the land near Mrs. Perry's yard. This death, though, doesn't seem to fit the pattern of crimes against Mrs. Perry, but they are clearly tied together because a nutmeg grinder is found on the body.

This mystery was more complex than others in the series. There are a bunch of people at play. It's not obvious at first who is friend and who is foe. But all the information is presented and an alert reader or listening can piece together the clues. There are some scenes that set up important clues that are very cinematic. One of those early on had me instantly suspecting a character who was barely introduced beyond being a background character (albeit a loud one).

The eighth book is Breaking the Mould (2018).

Five stars

Comments (0)