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CHOCOLATE DIPPED DEATH
by Sammi Carter
Berkley, March 2006
272 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 042520894X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Abby Shaw, newly returned resident of Paradise, Colorado has inherited her aunt Grace's candy store. Abby has nothing but happy memories of the shop and is determined to keep Grace's spirit alive there, but she also wants to make sure the store keeps being successful.

This year she's hosting the tenth Annual Confectionary Competition. Prizes are given out every day and the big prize is awarded on the final day. Unfortunately there's a problem with this year's competition.

Savannah Horne is also on a visit home and she is one of the most disliked women in town. She entered and won one leg of the candy making competition but the other contestants are livid with anger claiming she cheated and must be disqualified.

Abby soon finds out that the other contestants all already hate Savannah because of wrongs she did to them years ago, so she doesn't want to change the award without solid proof that Savannah actually broke the rules. But before she can investigate fully, Savannah goes missing. As luck would have it while walking her dog Abby finds Savannah's body in the snow.

Seeing that all the likely suspects in the murder are her closest friends and relatives Abby decides to investigate the murder to make certain justice is done.

Because this book is the second installment in the series and it's trying hard to establish itself as an ongoing cozy, the secondary story of Abby's trouble with her dog and her large extended family, is of as equal importance as the murder investigation.

All her relations seem to have an opinion on the way Divinity, the candy store, should be run and Abby constantly feels as if she has to defend all of her decisions. Also, her cousin Karen works in the shop with her, but she's been acting very mean, angry, and irrational towards Abby lately. In addition Abby's brother is having trouble with his teenaged daughter. Abby wants her niece to look on her as Abby used to feel about her aunt Grace, as a friend and confidant. But Abby's brother doesn't like that idea at all.

Abby's fine as the lead character. She is no pushover and she has spunk. But the book has some problems in it that took away from my enjoyment. It was never clear why Abby tolerated so much ill temper and meanness from her co-worker and cousin, Karen. We find out why Karen acted the way she did but still there was no reason given for Abby to tolerate the way Karen treated her.

Most importantly there isn't a sense of real affection for the process of candy making. Abby's mind is rarely on the art of confectionary and that leaves the readers without the sense of excitement we usually get with cozies that have a hobby or craft at its center.

Though it has it has flaws, CHOCOLATE DIPPED DEATH was enjoyable and I'm certain the series will get even better with the next installment. After all, any book that includes candy recipes can't be all that bad!

Reviewed by Sharon Katz, July 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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