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A Pie to Die For: A Bakery Detectives Cozy…
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A Pie to Die For: A Bakery Detectives Cozy Mystery (edition 2016)

by Stacey Alabaster (Author)

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726367,979 (3.08)4
"Rachael will do anything to protect her bakery from the evil Bakermatic Baked Goods Company, but does that include murder? When a food critic dies after sampling a pie from Rachael's Bakery, she is quickly labeled the prime suspect. When the police doubt her story of innocence, she has no choice but to find the real killer. With carefree best friend, Pippa, Rachael sets out on a mission to save her bakery, but it could ultimately cost her and her best friend everything."--Back cover.… (more)
Member:yrizaria
Title:A Pie to Die For: A Bakery Detectives Cozy Mystery
Authors:Stacey Alabaster (Author)
Info:Fairfield Publishing (2016), 161 pages
Collections:Kindle, To read
Rating:
Tags:mystery, free

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A Pie to Die For by Stacey Alabaster

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Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
This really should be labelled as a novella.

The main character is Rachael, who runs a bakery shop. Her sidekick is a red-headed airhead girl named Pippa who it seems, cannot keep a job.

Rachael has been losing business, most especially since the large Bakermatic bakery shop opened up just down the street.

This book opens with Rachael attempting to sell her baked goodies at the local street fair but having less than 5 customers all day. One of those customers was a food blogger named Colleen. She sampled one slice of Rachels cherry pie. Most of Rachaels previous customers all went to Bakermatic because they were offering "Free Samples" all day. Colleen said she would be going to all of the food stalls that day.

The next day the local news on TV announced that Colleen had died. The day after the TV announcement, a man comes to Rachael's house asking questions. She eventually gets dragged down to the police station, after learning that this man is actually a police detective.

After having been accused, but not charged, Rachael's business flounders even worse because the rumour is spreading that she poisoned Colleen and now NOONE wants to buy anything from her shop.

Rachael decides to investigate and find the killer herself. But she keeps coming up against the nice police detective, when her questions and antics go too far.

The sad thing about this specific story is that while we do eventually learn WHO killed Colleen, we dont get the method or the motive. We don't know the details of HOW Colleen was killed or exactly WHY she was killed. And I think these details were skipped, because this was just a novella and not a full length novel.

I think this should have been more of a full length novel -20 chapters instead of 7 chapters.

I gave this 3 stars, only because I do plan to read the next book to see if this improves. ( )
  Robloz | Sep 23, 2021 |
First off, I should have known from the cheesy blurb, but I didn't. Evil? Seriously? Also, the woman was a blogger, not a critic. They are two different things. Anyway...

Premise: A local food blogger, Colleen, tells Rachael (our protagonist) - whom Rachael dislikes and vice versa - that she has to try something from every stall at the food fair. That same night she learns that Colleen has died, and she is brought to the police station for questioning. She's told she's a suspect, and she points out that Colleen ate at every booth and is told they're aware of it. Then she discovers that a rival business - Bakermatic - is telling everyone she's a suspect in the murder.

Excuse me, but isn't Bakermatic also a suspect? How can she be targeted as a killer if the woman ate at every single booth before dying? Don't the police in this town do their job? ALL the vendors would be suspects. The police would do an autopsy (except in this town, I guess) to see what actually was in her stomach and what the cause of death was.

Following is the reason why this was so ridiculous:

Click on the link: It tells a key point that would have ended the book after about thirty pages if it had been shown:

https://joannesbooks.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-pie-to-die-for-bakery-detectives-coz...

FYI: How did they know she ate at Rachael's booth? Who told them? If it was a rival business owner, wouldn't they have to admit she bought their food, too? Wouldn't the police be a teensy bit suspicious of that person?

None of it makes any sense. Not even when she forced her best friend Pippa to take a job at the Bakermatic and convinces her to let her in after hours and, of course, they get caught immediately. These two women are dumber than a box of rocks. The police department is inept. People in this town are willing to take Bakermatic's word for it that Rachel's is to blame and eat at their store without proof that she's a murderer? I'd steer clear of anyone who was at the fair until the killer was actually named and arrested.

Speaking of Pippa, she's labeled a "free spirit." Every time I hear those words, I think of irresponsible, and I'm never disappointed. 'Free spirit' means 'doesn't want to hold a steady job and is somewhat of a flake.' I'm not fond of free spirits. Anyway...

I gave up and skipped to the end and it didn't make any sense. In the beginning Rachael states she pays her employees a living wage, but in the end her only employee is Pippa - and she just hired her. So who are these imaginary employees to whom she was paying a living wage? (However, to be fair, it may have been somewhere in the middle; but this book was so bad I couldn't make it past chapter two, and even that was too far.)

The author obviously has no idea what goes into a murder case except for the fact that there needs to be a dead body. She has no idea how to structure the story so it's believable. Details are important, and there aren't any here. I don't even know what state this takes place in, or any anything about the characters that define them (except for the fact that Pippa has red hair). Sorry, but I will never read this author again. ( )
  joannefm2 | Aug 27, 2019 |
A great start to a cozy mystery series. With humor, romance, friendship, danger, and strong women protagonists this is a wonderful quick read. The characters are well developed with their own unique personalities. I found myself laughing numerus times at the author’s humor. I can’t wait to read more in this series. ( )
  Chelsea_Furman | Feb 6, 2018 |
Not really very good. ( )
  ClifSven | May 5, 2017 |
This short novella introduces us to Rachael who owns a bakery that is not doing very well since a competitor that cuts corners and costs has moved in. After a food reviewer dies at a street fair, someone spreads the rumor that it was Rachael's goods which killed the person. Rachael had met Jackson, the detective assigned to the case, at the fair, which complicates matters. The mystery is stupid. Rachael is one of the worst amateur sleuths I've ever encountered. The writing was not that great either. The plot left me very unsatisfied. I received a free electronic copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ( )
  thornton37814 | Jul 20, 2016 |
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"Rachael will do anything to protect her bakery from the evil Bakermatic Baked Goods Company, but does that include murder? When a food critic dies after sampling a pie from Rachael's Bakery, she is quickly labeled the prime suspect. When the police doubt her story of innocence, she has no choice but to find the real killer. With carefree best friend, Pippa, Rachael sets out on a mission to save her bakery, but it could ultimately cost her and her best friend everything."--Back cover.

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