To Have and to Kill

Piper Donovan's dream is to be a successful actress, but when she loses her role on a soap opera she moves back home with her parents to save money. She soon finds herself working in her mother's bakery and realizing as she does so that her mother is keeping a big secret from her. As Piper begins to figure out what is wrong with her mother, she also becomes involved in another mystery when someone from her soap opera is murdered. Piper is drawn into the mystery because one of her closest friends could easily have been the victim and her friend's soon-to-be husband is a major suspect. As more victims pile up, Piper realizes she needs to solve the mystery soon or there will be no wedding.

"To Have and to Kill" is an interesting start to Mary Jane Clark's Wedding Cake mystery series. While it is nothing new to have a mystery centered on food, Clark kicks it up a notch by not only having Piper be a struggling actress, but the health problems her mother faces (as well as Piper's father's obsession with always being prepared for an emergency). The behind-the-scenes descriptions of both the soap opera set and the bakery are interesting. Piper is a good, strong character who wants to be an actress but is increasingly drawn to making cakes - her Twitter updates say a lot about her character. While the book is focused on Piper, Clark uses the viewpoints of several characters, including the murderer (deftly done without revealing who the killer is). This provides Clark with plenty of suspects. Unfortunately, while that is a strong point of the mystery part of the book there are a few weak links that almost throw it off course. The major weak part for me was that far too many people trust the killer to turn him/herself in after they confront the killer. This was unbelievable to me - and it happened more than once. Also, I would have liked the murder plot to be wrapped up a bit more - the motives for the murders were believable but there were some things left hanging that I would have liked to know more about (like what happened to a certain young character). All in all, the ending to the murder plot seemed to be a bit rushed.

"To Have and to Kill" isn't perfect, but it features some strong characters and some nice family relationships and I think the series will get better as Clark writes more books in the series. ( )

I'm not generally a huge fan of "craft cozies," which are so popular with publishers these days. I probably wouldn't have picked this book up had I seen it in a library or bookstore. But when it was made available at a very low price for Kindle, and I read a sample page or two, I thought it was worth spending a few hours with. So if any authors out there are wondering whether this marketing device works -- it works on me!

The character of Piper Donovan, a struggling actress who moves back in with her safety-conscious father and bakery-owner mother, is engaging and fun to spend time with. The plot is plenty convoluted and there are a plethora of suspects and red herrings to keep the reader guessing. If you like [a:Diane Mott Davidson|9556|Diane Mott Davidson|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1224184992p2/9556.jpg] and [a:Joanne Fluke|18819|Joanne Fluke|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1342377754p2/18819.jpg], you'll probably like this book too. ( )

Piper Donovan, the daughter of a cake artist and a police officer, sees her life changing since she has hit a dry spell in her acting efforts after ‘dying’ on a soap opera. Piper learns that her good friend Glenna, the star of the soap, is getting married and wants Piper’s mother to make the wedding cake. While attending a fundraiser at the school of Glenna’s future husband, Piper watches as Glenna’s costar, Travis, dies of cyanide poisoning. From there, Piper ponders ‘who done it’ while tying to figure out what is wrong with her mother and trying to make a return in a dream sequence on the soap. The story includes lots of possibilities and more murders that leave the reader guessing up until the end.

Though I would not describe this book as riveting, it was fun to read and definitely had many possibilities for the murderer. The book moves quickly and is an easy and diverting read. ( )

I wanted to try a book by this prolific New York Times bestselling author, and a mystery involving a bakery seemed right up my alley.

Piper Donovan is an out-of-work actress who is helping her mom with her bakery, “The Icing on the Cupcake.”

Piper, 27 and “gorgeous” has only ever wanted two things out of life: to act, and to fall in love. During high school, her role model was Carrie Bradshaw from “Sex and the City.” [You can tell this will not be a feminist tract.]

Piper used to co-star in a daytime soap opera along with her best friend Glenna Brooks, who is now quitting the series to marry a man she hardly knows, Casey Walden. She asks Piper if her mom's bakery will make the wedding cake, and Piper is thrilled, but nervous.

Piper dates, but has no one steady in her life except a handsome guy ("just friends") she met at karate class, FBI Agent Jack Donovan. And it is with this relationship that the author shows why she has so many female fans. After dinner over at Jack’s apartment, Jack cleans up the table. [That alone would get my hormones in an uproar, but there’s more!]

'Piper watched as Jack cleared the dishes away. The sleeves of his V-neck sweater were pushed up, revealing his muscular forearms. As he turned and carried the plates to the sink, she couldn’t help but admire his tall, trim build and broad shoulders.”

The little titillation between Piper and Jack aside, dead bodies start piling up on the set of the soap opera. (Piper is on the set once more to film a dream sequence in which her former dead character appears.) Piper and Jack cogitate on who the murderer could be (when not taking stock of each other’s assets).

And in a final baking frenzy, Glenna’s wedding cake is made. But will Glenna be alive to eat it? [And seriously, would a movie star eat cake ANYway?!!!]

This is only the first of this series, so I have no doubt we’ll see more of Piper piping icing, and Jack fighting to maintain his trim build in spite of the constant temptation of Piper’s cookies….

Evaluation: Fast and diverting read if you’re up for a cozy mystery. It includes a tempting recipe for buttercream icing suitable for 100 people. [That ought to hold me for a weekend…] ( )

I really wanted to like this book, and in the end I did. Unfortunately, it was the "just liked" kind of like, not the enthusiastic kind.Something about the writing style didn't quite work for me. The sentences were short, without much detail. This may be a purely personal thing, but somehow it never drew me into the world of the book. Piper was an interesting character, at least on the surface. I never felt I really got to know her, even though I was told a lot about her, including her thoughts and plans. I did like the fledgling love interest with her friend, and hope that develops in future books.The mystery would have drawn me in if I'd been more attached to the characters. Unfortunately, I wasn't convinced by the motive at the end-- I'd examined the character and dismissed them as a suspect because the motive didn't seem compelling enough.I was drawn to this book due to the Wedding Cake angle. There isn't much of that world in this book, although I enjoyed what was there. Instead, I saw lots of the world inside a soap opera, which I loved! That was the best aspect of the book for me.I haven't read Mary Jane Clark before. I'm interested in picking up one of her other books, since I'd love the same look into the TV News world as I did into the world of the soaps, and I think the writing style could work more for me with a thriller than a cozy-ish mystery. ( )