Stake and Eggs

First Line: Ice pellets blasted the windows of the Cackleberry Club.

It's whiteout conditions in Kindred, Minnesota, and everyone has headed for home. Now that the Cackleberry Club Café is cleaned up and ready for the next day's business, home is exactly where owner Suzanne Dietz and her two partners Toni and Petra are headed, too... until the sounds of a racing snowmobile and a crash make Suzanne race out the backdoor into the snow.

She finds bank president Ben Busacker's decapitated body thrown from his wrecked snowmobile-- and a wire strung tightly between two poles. The murder has occurred right in time for the Fire and Ice winter festival, and it chills Suzanne to the bone knowing that she may very well be serving ham and eggs to show more the murderer in her very own café. The problem is that Busacker was the most hated man in town, foreclosing on well-liked farmers and turning others down for loans. The local sheriff needs all the help he can get in narrowing down the list of suspects, and with everyone beating a path to Suzanne's door, she thinks she's going to be just the woman to pare down that list.

This fourth book was my introduction to this mystery series featuring three women in their forties who have banded together in business and in friendship after dealing with the loss of their husbands. Suzanne is the star of the show, and the mastermind behind the café, bookstore and yarn shop. Although everyone in town seems to come to her for help, she's not your usual "Mother Earth" type. If she feels that she-- or anyone else-- is being pushed around, she has no problem with getting in the guilty person's face and telling him what's what. She also has a tendency to shout a bit and share pieces of her mind with everyone when she's on an adrenaline rush-- something that brand-new beau Sam Hazelet can deal with.

Most of the humor in the book belongs to Suzanne's friend and business partner, Toni, who's tiny and opinionated and has an on-again-off-again relationship with Junior, a parolee who isn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Junior is a mechanic who loves get rich quick schemes, and his latest invention, the Car Cooker, is a hoot. (Especially if it comes with a cocktail-shaker attachment....)

I sometimes felt a bit out-of-the-loop with Suzanne, her friends, and all the various relationships and histories, so I think that this is a series that might best be started from the beginning. However, the story is well-told, with very plausible red herrings that can easily lead a reader astray, and it's filled with a cast of characters that genuinely care for each other and enjoy each other's company. There's action when it's least expected, and the humor can sneak up and make a person laugh out loud. Yes indeed, it would be very easy for me to become a regular at the Cackleberry Club Café. show less

Don’t start reading this book until you have a blanket on your lap, some nourishment on a plate, and a hot drink in your hand. Most of the action in this story is outside during the winter, and the author paints a realistic setting of frozen snow and ice. In fact, a winter festival is part of the scene, along with a snowmobile accident. . . or was it murder? A good time sure wasn’t had by all, but you’ll have a good time reading this tale. With lots of action, an intriguing plot, endearing characters, and tasty recipes, this book is sure to entertain you even as it gives you the chills.

Winter has come to Kindred and it is holding nothing back! The town is covered in ice and snow and there is an extreme chill in the air. The chill isn't all from the plummeting temperatures outside either, for there has just been a terrible murder in the woods behind the Cackleberry Club. People snowmobile all the time in Kindred in the winter, but it's not often that kills them, like it has the big swig hated banker in town. Suzanne has seen a lot of death in the last 10 months, but this is by far the most gruesome, with the bankers head being clean lopped off his body from a wire that was stretched between two trees in the woods. Suzanne vows to not get involved this time in solving the murder, but soon she is roped in and doing her show more best to figure things out. The problem? The killer doesn't look to kindly on her doing so. The whole town hated the banker, but who hated him enough to actually kill him? Can Suzanne defrost the clues and find the murderer before he kills again?

Once again, Childs amazes me and makes me love her even more! She is such a great author that writes so well, that I actually found myself thinking about the characters in her books as real people that I wished I could just meet. This series leaves me wishing I could go work at the Cackleberry Club with these fun and loving ladies. This book is a great read, just like the others! It starts out with a bang and continues that suspense all the way through the book. Not once did I put it down and think, eh I'll read when I get to it. NOPE, I hated to put it down and couldn't wait to pick it back up when I did have to put it down. Suzanne, Toni, and Petra are just amazing characters who are so different from one another, but have very common situations really, and that's what makes them long lasting friends. They also all have humdinger personalities that you can't help but love. They are all so snoopy and gossipy, but in a good way it turns out, especially when they are trying to crack open a murder. If you pick up one series by a new to you author you just have to pick this one! The books in the Cackleberry Club Mystery Series are phenomenal and well worth you time. They are simply amazing as a series, but would be great as stand alone books too. So if you don't want to read from the beginning, pick this one up and give it a go, you won't be sorry!

5/5 Stars!! show less

The newest of the Cackleberry Club mysteries grabs the reader immediately with the murder by decapitation of the town Bank President while snowmobiling. (It's not as gruesome as it sounds.) But since most the town is not happy with the manner they were treated by the deceased, there are loads of suspects for Suzanne to look at which gets her into loads of trouble and others with her.

With mountains of snow and loads of good food described (including recipes - yum!) it isn't hard to imagine the events depicted.

Loads of fun and perfect read for a snow filled season!

Suzanne hears snowmobiles near the Cackleberry Club and then hears an accident. When she investigates, she finds a decapitated snowmobiler who fell victim to a taut wire. She calls Sheriff Doogie. She finds a young boy one evening in the Cackleberry Club who borrowed a key from her employee Joey. This one has lots of suspects--some local and some not. The small town flavor of this series really makes it fun. There is plenty of humor interspersed as well. I might even try one of the recipes at the end!

Suzanne, Toni & Petra are gearing up for the Crackleberry Club to participate in the annual Fire & Ice winter festival. They are doing teas and fashion shows as well as hosting the closing event.

When the local banker, a man universally hated by most of the small town, is killed on his way to see Suzanne, she and her friends start hunting for a killer. As usual Suzanne is sharing all information with Sheriff Doogie and trying to pry more information out of the local cop.

Suzanne has several possible suspects and Doogie has even more, since the banker was so by-the-book that he was threatening foreclosure, refusing loans and generally not endearing himself to the various people and possible suspects.

I totally did not suspect the actual show more killer, which I often enjoy more than figuring it out for myself.

I still have at least one book to read in this series. show less

As always a fun read. Her books tend to be my "car books". This means I always have one in the car to read when I have to wait for someone or something. Easy to read and enjoyable.