Darci Hannah

I’m pretty sure I’ve read this book countless times before…only the title and all of the character names have been changed.

Thirty-something, former-investment-banker-turned-baker Lindsey Bakewell is in crisis after a painful break-up with her former fiancé, Jeffrey. She settles in the picturesque town of Beacon Harbor, Michigan seeking refuge from her dysfunctional life and romance in New York City. She renovates a quaint, old lighthouse into a charming bakery and residence in which show more she lives with her all-too-adorable dog Wellington while pursuing a fledgling romance with former Special Forces captain/huntsman extraordinaire, Rory. With her best friend Kennedy and her ragamuffin entourage of parents, dog, studly boyfriend, and assorted employees, Lindsey decides she must solve the murder of the local cookie bake-off judge herself because the local police are kind of a joke and—quite frankly—there would be no excuse for this book if she didn’t.

Like many contemporary mystery series, the writing is absolutely appalling. For example: “Kennedy, whom I had been texting with since the police had arrived…” Aargh! It doesn’t take any extra effort to write the correct, “Kennedy, with whom I had been texting since the police arrived…” It reads so much more smoothly when properly written. The author (or her editor) should have caught mistakes like these and corrected them, but they didn’t; the result is a very choppy, unpleasant reading experience. Darci Hannah would really benefit from a refresher course in elementary grammar.

And why do her female characters have to start so many sentences with, “Ooooooo….”? Oooooo! That was soooooo annoying!

Of course, there is nothing more annoying (or pathetic) than a self-styled amateur detective who can’t detect anything; even the simplest, most obvious mysteries seem to elude our intrepid, yet clueless, heroine.

Lindsey’s retired parents travel from Florida to Beacon Harbor in order to spend Christmas with their daughter. They rave on and on about how much they love Michigan, how much they miss Michigan, how much Michigan means to them, etc. Lindsey then catches them sneaking off for covert meetings with Betty Vanhoosen, Beacon Harbor’s premiere real estate agent. Lindsey suspects they are keeping something from her, but what could it possibly be? Lindsey is at an utter loss to know what is going on. When her parents eventually announce they are moving to Beacon Harbor to be closer to their daughter, Lindsey is floored…she had no idea they were planning to move! What a shock…for Lindsey, anyway. The reader managed to figure it out without any difficultly from the very beginning, and is forced to spend the duration of the book wondering why so-called sleuth Lindsey can’t pick up on the obvious.

Needless to say, this conspicuous inability to interpret clues & formulate accurate solutions extends to the book’s murder. Lindsey conducts her unofficial investigation in a sort of haphazard fashion that basically consists of randomly browbeating her neighbors and indiscriminately accusing them of murder. (How Lindsey expects to continue living in a community with these poor people after treating them this way is anybody’s guess.) Lindsey eventually zeroes in on her primary suspect, and proceeds to nab the culprit in a dramatically staged confrontation. Lindsey smugly basks in the glory of a mystery well-solved until someone taps her on the shoulder and says, “How dare you arrest anyone else when I am the actual murderer!” Oooooops.

Yep, somebody needs to buy this woman a copy of Nancy Drew’s Mystery Solving Techniques for Dummies because Lindsey is none too astute.

The reader is left wondering if poor Lindsey will ever solve the burgeoning mystery of her studmuffin boyfriend Rory and her superficial best friend Kennedy. Rory is described as a colossal hunk of a man with dark, coffee colored hair and Caribbean Sea blue eyes. Gag…I mean, swooooon. He is an ex-Special Forces captain and avid hunter who currently writes thrillers and does hush-hush, clandestine work for the DEA and Coast Guard, so he clearly enjoys killing things both professionally and as a hobby. Kennedy has no apparent talent or skills, but seems to find fame and fortune through sheer force of will and a predilection for exaggerated pretense and bravado—kind of a poor man’s version of Kim Kardashian. Kennedy is British; we know this because the author has her inject the word ‘wanker’ into every other conversation. Caribbean Blue Rory and Ken K spend a lot of time squabbling and insulting one another…a lot. *wink, wink* And, as anyone who has ever seen a low-budget Hallmark movie knows, this kind of open hostility is always the inevitable harbinger of romance.

We all know Lindsey will never be able to figure this out on her own, so it seems unavoidable that an upcoming sequel will have coffee-topped Rory and wanker-spouting Kennedy eventually fessing up to their torrid affair. Having had no prior inkling of their duplicity, Lindsey will fly off the deep end and poison them both with a carefully crafted spotted dick.

And Lindsey will still have no clue who did it.

Haunted by her own failure to solve the diabolical murders of her beefcake beau and her brazen bestie, Lindsey will lapse into a clafouti-induced coma, and this crap-fest of a series will come to a merciful and unsurprising conclusion. Oooooo, we hope. show less

Bridget "Bunny" MacBride is a Scottish chef who's come to live in the USA. She's part of a cooking show with a famous chef, having her own segment. But when she clashes with the woman, suddenly her life has changed. She's offered her own show -- Food & Spirits, -- and jumps at the chance. What she doesn't know until later is that the "spirits" part isn't about alcoholic beverages. It's about actual spirits. In other words, ghosts.

Bunny isn't happy about this, since she left Scotland to get show more away from ghosts of her old life. But soon enough she finds out that they're traveling to England to contact the Mistletoe Bride -- a woman who died on her wedding night at Christmas -- and there's no way out for her. What she really doesn't expect is to see the ghost of her white rabbit, Hopper, or to need the help of her grandma, who is an actual psychic. But here, the unexpected becomes reality, and she soon finds that reality isn't all what it's cracked up to be...

This is the first book in a new series by Darci Hannah, one of my favorite authors. It's a sort of a spin off from the Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries, in that Brett Bloom, who was a 'guest' ghosthunter in that series, and turns up again in this series, as part of the group. Saying that, let's get to the story without giving away any spoilers (if I can).

The crew is invited to the Manor by a historian who is chronicling the past of the manor and the tale of the Mistletoe Bride, and wants them to attempt to contact her. But on the night of the dinner -- being made magnificently by Bunny, and filmed by the ghosthunters, she sees the ghost of Hopper, and her life changes. Suddenly she's now a murder suspect, and calls her grandma for help. During the investigation, she doesn't know who believes her and who doesn't; but it doesn't matter anyway because she and grandma -- and the crew -- are trying to figure out who killed the person.

Unfortunately, it has to be someone who was at Bramsford Manor that night, which includes all of the staff, and even the owners. Can Bunny figure it out? But what's even more important, can she figure out what is going on with her, and can she stop running from herself at last?

I have to say that I just loved this book. It had all the elements of a good story -- a protagonist with a tragic background (explained in the book so no cliffhangers!); interesting characters all around, and the best, a little paranormal activity to keep you interested. And interested I was, finishing this book far too soon and wanting more! Giff is a hoot, and when he's with grandma, you have two hoots and a half...if I may say so (ha). Brett is a bit more skeptical, but being a ghosthunter, he'd better figure it out, and he does; but I think unwillingly, anyway. I also liked many of the secondary characters as well, which is a big plus.

When the ending comes and we finally figure out the murderer, I have to say that I was completely surprised by this. That's a good thing. I read far too many mysteries where I figure out the killer way before our protagonist does. But this also was intriguing in the fact that we find out more than the motive -- the killer gives us enough reasons to wonder how anyone in the manor couldn't even suspect them. They go to great lengths to keep it all hidden, and do so magnificently.

In the end, we are given a hint of what is to come in future books (which I hope will happen soon) and some truly delicious-looking recipes that I plan to try myself! Highly recommended.

I was given a copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review. show less

I loved this story. It has everything you want in a Christmas cozy mystery. There are engaging characters, a wintery but cozy setting, and the smell of freshly baked pastries on every page. When. Lindsay rose at 3:00 a.m. each morning to begin mixing her doughs, I felt like I was there with her. As a baker myself, I could easily see in my mind her sweet roll dough recipe as well as her cinnamon rolls and caramel pecan rolls. She baked and fried the doughs before making a variety of danish show more pastries all hours before her bakery opened for the day.

The characters were believable. Of course, Lindsay is a great character but the villain seemed all too real to me also. Felicity, owner of a year-round Christmas shop, is the epitome of every jealous woman I have had to "compete" against when bringing treats to work. She will sabotage the efforts of other bakers in order to always be first at everything. A few years ago a co-worker threw my cookies in the garbage because no one was eating hers so I definitely feel Lindsay's pain. The celebrity judge, Chef Chevy Chambers, is another villain in the story. His character provides many of the twists and turns because he not only is having an affair with several contestants but he also put a few of them out of business with his scathing newspaper reviews of their restaurants. When he ends up murdered, there are several possible whodunnits. The howdunnit should be obvious. It's a rolling pin.

Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off is simply the best Christmas cozy that I have ever read. show less

Lindsey Bakewell, fresh off of a breakup with her cheating ex-fiancé Jeffery, impulsively buys an old lighthouse and its attached carriage house in the place where she used to spend her summers with her beloved grandparents. She's an ex-investment banker, and begins renovating the place to open a bakeshop, which has always been her dream.

With new employees in place, and a temporary barista in the form of her hunky neighbor Rory Campbell, everything seems to be going smoothly -- until a bus show more load of people arrive, including her ex and his girlfriend Mia, who begins causing trouble by grabbing food and drink from paying customers, and throwing donuts against the display cases. Shortly after Rory unceremoniously escorts Mia outside, she collapses on the ground, and it's soon discovered that she was poisoned.

Now, with the bakeshop temporarily closed, Lindsey and her best friend Kennedy, an top-rated influencer, are tasked with finding out who poisoned the woman. Then when another tragedy occurs, the investigation ramps up, but not without the help of Rory, her dog Wellington, and maybe even a little ghostly influence in the form of Captain Willy, who haunts the lighthouse...

This is the first book in a new series, and I have to say that I am sorry that I waited so long to read it. I absolutely love the fact that while Lindsey runs from New York after a breakup, she isn't broke and moving back in with her parents. In fact, this new protagonist is quite wealthy and can stand on her own two feet. I also loved the fact that when she learned something, she turned it right over to the police, instead of keeping the information to herself. A clue that she was indeed an intelligent woman instead of someone who needed to 'prove herself just as good as the police.'

I did like the characters in the book quite a bit. Lindsey, of course, has proven herself to be smart, capable, and willing to take risks, while also turning information over to the authorities. Kennedy is a complete hoot, and I would love to see her in later books. Rory is the hero-anti-hero, who doesn't flaunt his past and just wants to live his life; while the others in the town are all worth getting to know. I love that there's no 'evil nemesis,' and that the police chief doesn't hate her.

These make for quite an interesting book, one I just couldn't put down once I started reading. The plot was done very well, and the writing is extremely good. There are no stereotypes in the mix, and the descriptions of everything surrounding Lindsey make it so nice that I would like to vacation in this little place (but not live there as I really don't care for snow!).

I love to cook and bake, so I don't even mind the descriptions of food or the recipes. Although I do realize not everyone enjoys this, it is a culinary mystery, so they are to be expected. And the recipes in the back sound completely yummy.

When Lindsey starts investigating, she can't pin down who would set out to sabotage her -- after Jeffery declares he didn't kill anyone -- and wonders if she, herself were the real target or if it were someone else. When she starts digging, she also begins to become interested in her resident ghost's past and his untimely demise, and wonders what happened to him, and why. But what she discovers is that there are more secrets in this town than she could ever imagine, and finding them out could get her killed...

When the ending comes and the murderer is revealed, it is both sad and unexpected, which is the way it should be in a mystery. The pieces fit together nicely in the puzzle, and there is a very good climax scene that I didn't see coming at all, and made everything before it worthwhile. This is a very good start to a new series and I will read the next. Highly recommended.

I received a copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review. show less