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THE CHOCOLATE PUPPY PUZZLE
by Joanna Carl
Signet, December 2004
227 pages
$5.99
ISBN: 0451213645


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It is the end of the tourist season in Warner Pier on Lake Michigan and the locals are celebrating by turning the town's only traffic light off, and holding a barbecue to which all the local merchants have contributed produce. Lee McKinney has brought along some handmade chocolates from her Aunt Nettie's shop, where she works as accountant and business manager.

Amongst the people she runs into at the party is the flamboyant authoress Maia Michaelson, the new persona adopted by the formerly timid Mae Ensminger. Maia's book is based on the true story of her own family's past tragedy arising from a romance between a holidaying gangster and her grandmother in the 1930s, although the facts of the case are hotly disputed by other locals and family members.

Maia is especially keen to introduce everyone to Aubrey Ambrose Armstrong, a movie producer who wants to make a film of her book. He is a charming man with a wonderful chocolate-coloured Labrador puppy, Monte, but as fun as he is to spend time with, not everyone believes he is who he says he is. Lee is immediately suspicious, as is her policeman boyfriend Joe. And it's clear Lee's best friend Maggie, who lived in Hollywood for a few years while she tried her hand at acting, knows something about him that she is reluctant to divulge.

Within days Lee finds herself caught up in the middle of a murder and a missing person case, and then she becomes a target for a sniper herself. Keen to help the police but also reluctant to draw attention to her friend Maggie's possible motives, Lee is also confused about how to handle her aunt dating the suspect film-maker and where her own romance with Joe is headed.

THE CHOCOLATE PUPPY PUZZLE is the fourth in the Lee McKinney series by Joanna Carl, a pseudonym for Eve K Sandstrom, but it's not necessary to have read the previous books in the series to enjoy this one. Some readers may be put off by Lee's rather irritating tendency to malapropisms -- I wish she'd get to a therapist and sort that out as they aren't amusing -- but thankfully they are tolerably infrequent.

The book is indeed a very enjoyable cosy read, chock-full of vibrant characters and an adorable puppy, a fast-paced plot that keeps you turning the pages, and a smattering of chocolate facts to keep you hungry, but not so many that the story is overwhelmed. If you like a traditional small town mystery, you'll enjoy this too.

Reviewed by Bridget Bolton, December 2004

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