Baked to Death

Publisher's Summary

From USA Today best-selling culinary cozy mystery author Catherine Bruns comes the next delightfully delicious Cookies & Chance Mystery....

Baker-turned-reluctant-amateur-sleuth Sally Muccio’s finally found the happiness that’s eluded her for years. She’s in love with a great guy, her bakery is thriving, and now she and her best friend Josie Sullivan are gearing up to appear on the popular reality baking show, Cookie Crusades. But a visit from Sal’s greedy ex-husband Colin, who's looking to cash in on the bakery’s dough, changes everything. 

Within a few hours Sal’s world - like the shop’s original fortune cookies - is broken apart when Colin turns up dead, and her boyfriend’s arrested for the crime. Now Sal’s mixing it up with vengeful ex-in-laws, a suspicious new employee, slippery baking competitors, and a greasy mobster who’ll stop at nothing to collect on Colin’s unpaid debt. Can Sal prove her man is innocent in time? Or is she about to get baked herself?

The Cookies & Chance Mysteries: 

• Tastes Like Murder, Book 1
• Baked to Death, Book 2
• "A Spot of Murder", short story in the Killer Beach Reads collection 

"The delightful whodunit kept me guessing until the end, and the tasty treats had my mouthwatering from start to finish! A fantastic culinary mystery in the vein of Joanne Fluke and Diane Mott Davidson!" (Gemma Halliday, New York Times and USA Today best-selling mystery author)

©2015 Catherine Bruns (P)2019 Catherine Bruns

5 stars

Very good cozy mystery. Interesting plot, engaging characters not too silly. I'll get the next book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

5/5 Award Winning Cookies…Totally Engaging Fun!

Catherine Bruns takes us on another enjoyable taste in her Cookies & Chance mysteries. Sally’s Samples is doing quite well, and the “icing on the cookie” is the news they’ve been selected as contestants in a Food Network reality baking competition. But, the “cookie crumbles” when Sally’s ex-husband shows up threatening to take half of her successful business, but of course, he’ll take $20,000 to make his claim go away. Oops! The Ex turns up dead, the boyfriend is arrested for murder, and her amateur sleuthing turns up former girlfriends, questionable characters, very competitive competitors, and more than a few avenues of interest. The drama at the baking competition was exactly how I thought it would be since I am a Food Network fan, and Sally’s difficulties with the death of her ex and dealing with her former in-laws were written very well. I really felt bad…where’s Karma hiding from book 1? Oh, he shows up!

This story is well worth a second helping! Catherine’s Bruns’s work is always the main force, but Siobhan O’Day’s narration enhanced my “redo” with a very pleasant voice for Sally’s “I” perspective. Her voice artistry goes well beyond the traditional reading making entertaining changes in tone, emotion, and varied dialects and accents to illustrate the different characters. Josie’s “New Yawk” twang was so delightful! The Italian accent for Grandma Rosa and her nemesis Mrs Gavelli were different and spot on. All female narrators have the challenge to mimic a male voice, and Siobhan’s efforts didn't go unnoticed. I was really looking forward to hearing her artistry with the different generations. The differences between a youthful or aged tone is important, and Siobhan was great! My only complaint is that you miss out on the recipes…so I make sure to pick up the eBook for those!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good beach/vacay/escape companion

I don’t often go for the lovelorn mystery novels, but picked this for a vacation listen. Where the story started to lose me from time to time, the reading performance actually kept me listening. But I’d say that this should happily satisfy fans of this genre, and if it were read by Ms. O’Day, I might even give another a try.