Sugar and Vice: 06/01/22

Sugar and Vice by Eve Calder and Christa Lewis (Narrator) is the second book in the Cookie House mystery series. While Kate is helping Maxi in her extensive garden, Oliver digs up a skeleton dressed in pirate garb. Even after it's established that the body isn't Gentleman George, the pirate credited with founding Coral Cay, the damage is done and the town is over run with treasure hunters.

The bulk of this mystery centers on establishing the identity of the body which Maxi has dubbed "Alvin." Understanding who he is requires building a timeline of events that happened months before Kate moved to Coral Cay. There are a couple strong leads and I was briefly misled by the most convincing of the herrings.

The mystery investigation happens as the town prepares for the Pirate Days festival. Kate is using the time to do a recipe of the day raffle where customers share a cookie recipe that she then bakes. There were quite a few delicious sounding cookies mentioned here and one of them just might hold the clue to solve the murder!

As with the first book my favorite character remains Maxi. She's a wonderfully nuanced character. She brings this series to life.

This time around since Katy is well situated in her new life, it was nice to see her in her element. Unfortunately her ex-fiancé makes an appearance. I really wanted him to be part of the murder plot, but he isn't.

The third book is A Tale of Two Cookies (2021).

Five stars

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