On Thin Icing is a delicious new mystery
On Thin Icing: A Bakeshop Mystery
by Ellie Alexander
St Martins Press
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date: December 29, 2015
Description
Welcome to Torte-a small-town family bakeshop where the treats are killer good.
It's the dead of winter in the sleepy town of Ashland, which means no tourists-and fewer customers-for Jules Capshaw and her bakery. But when she's asked to cater an off-season retreat for the directors of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, business starts heating up...until Jules finds a dead body in the freezer.
Review
On Thin Icing is modeled after the classic manor house mystery. In Ellie Alexander’s cozy debut, Jules Capshaw is hired to cater for a weekend retreat for the directors of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The retreat takes place at an isolated resort a few hours from Ashland. Jules expects that her main challenge will be delighting the palates of the directors and cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen. What she gets is far different. Her estranged husband Carlos arrives intent on rekindling their romance. Power and communications are limited. If that isn't enough, Jules discovers the body of the resort’s bartender in the freezer.
With a storm cutting off access to the resort, the only police assistance comes in the form of two detectives from Ashland - one of whom is a close friend who wishes to be something more. The mystery attracts Jules, and soon she is asking questions as well as whipping up delectable dishes.
Ellie Alexander does a good job describing Jules’s thoughts and perceptions. Not every author is skilled writing in the first person. The dishes she describes are mouth-watering. It is easy to believe that cooking is Jules’s passion. Her assistant Sterling is perceptive and compassionate, willing to voice what Jules is not willing to see. I liked the premise of the novel, and feel that Alexander is a skilled writer.
While On Thin Icing is not groundbreaking, it is a solid, well written start to what promises to be an entertaining new series.
4/5
On Thin Icing is available for preorder and will be released December 29, 2015.
I received a copy of On Thin Icing from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
—Crittermom
http://muttcafe.com/2015/12/on-thin-icing/
