Tastes Like Murder

Cookies & Chance Mysteries, Book 1

By: Catherine Bruns

Narrated by: Karen Rose Richter

Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Sally Muccio's had her crosses to bear: a cheating ex-boyfriend, crazy Italian parents, and an unfaithful husband, just to name a few. After her divorce, she returns to her hometown to start a novelty cookie shop whose specialties include original fortune cookies, served with a sprinkle of foreshadowing.

But there's no warning when her ex-husband's mistress drops dead on Sal's porch, and police confirm it's a homicide. Determined to stop her life from becoming a recipe for disaster, Sal takes matters into her own hands.

With two very different men vying for her affection, dead bodies piling up, and a reputation hanging by an apron string, Sal finds herself in a race against time to save both her business and life - before the last cookie crumbles.

©2015 Catherine Bruns (P)2017 Catherine Bruns

Where's My Fortune Cookie?

Heroine Sally Mucci and her gal pal/sidekick can take on the world with their cookies, wisecracks and friendship, even when a corpse turns up in front of their store. Most of the characters have known each other since high school or even earlier and much of the action is driven by personality, family background, and relationships. This is a "cozy" mystery so fun and food are at the forefront and several recipes are included which I'd love to try. Narrator Karen Rose Richter had a great time creating the voices and various accents. Caution: There is a "Don't go in the haunted house!" moment when you'd like to thwack the character as you yell at her from the back of the theater.
Disclaimer: "I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

It was not the cookies!!!!

This is my first book by this author. I thought it was a great story line. Sal and her friend Josie run a bakery. A woman from her past that cheated with her ex husband comes to town and comes to the bakery and taunts her. On one of her visits, she get some cookies from Sal and leaves. However when Sal got ready to go out and opens her door she is dead outside the door. So of course she feels she needs to investigate herself for her business so she and her friend Josie have to find out how she died. It turns out it is bee venom, which of course, the victim Amanda is allergic too. But how did she ingest it. Sal is getting over a divorce and her old boyfriend comes back in her life and policeman,Bryan, who is working on the also has other interest in Sal. Both want to go out with her. Mike the old boyfriend wants them to rekindle their love. So now she has romance issues plus financial issues due to the murder outside her store. After asking people many questions, one being the deliveryman they use(sleazy guy) who was having an affair with Amanda, there is another murder. The delivery man. He too was poisoned. He had gotten some cookies from Sal. Someone put it in the cookies. Now there is two murders. Things start to get dangerous for Sally and Josie. Bryan tries to insist they quit snooping. Of course Sally does not. What will happen next? Who done It? And which guy will she choose? I received this book free in change for an honest review. I really enjoyed the story line and the characters were great. The narrator did a great job. The only thing i did not like was the guy she decided to be with. Just my opinion. I wanted her to pick the other guy. Other than that, i look forward to more in this series.

3 and a half

This is an OK but typical story. I figured out who did it early but continued to listen because I liked the characters and wanted to see how the story unfolded. My only other complaint about this story is the unnecessary love triangle that seems to be part of every cozy mystery.

Did not finish

I could not finish this book. I listened to over half of the book before I had to stop. The characters were just weird. Everything about them was off. Nothing about the story held any interest for me. The narrator made Sally sound whiny and childlike. She made it difficult to listen to. This series is not for me. I was given a free copy of this audiobook and have voluntarily left this review.

Loved it

I really loved this book. It kept me listening right through dinner as I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next. The narrator has the perfect voice for reading this book.

Fun

I enjoyed listening to this story. The narrator also did a great job with the voices. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Hard to Put Down Cookie Cozy Mystery

I have read other books by this author and really enjoyed them and this one was no different in enjoyment level. The main character has a new bakery and is trying to kick it off on a positive note and build good returning customers but when the woman who had an affair with her ex husband falls dead outside her bakery after eating one of her cookies it looks far too much like a revenge poisoning... she decides she can't wait for the police to figure it out in a matter of days her bakery would be dead as well. What transpires is a fun cozy mystery to try to prove her innocence and that her cookies are not to blame. Definitely recommend for cozy mystery fans.

Parents: this is acceptable for preteens and up
Language: G
Violence: PG murder but nothing graphic
Sexual content: PG - normal cozy romance, nothing to warn of

Narrator was fun and easy to listen too and had pretty good character differentiation.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Fun read!

Great book with a cliffhanger that makes me know I have to read the second! Good mystery and a fun read. I received a free copy and left my honest review

Baking and Murder

If you enjoy watching the Food Channel and like mysteries, you'll find this a baking good entry. Clues and suspects abound.

excellent

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

Tastes Like Murder

I found this story interesting, some of the characters I liked, and there were several twists in the story.

The narration was good.

A mystery wrapped up in a cookie

I enjoyed this book. It focused to much on trying to decide which man was the love of her life for me to give it a five star, I do like romances in cozy mystery but not as the main focus, it was only going out for a meal not a marriage proposal. Other than that the characters are to say the least interesting and very very quirky, which made it fun. Some of the characters I didn't take to, as they were rude and I don't just mean the murder victim and unfortunately at times this also included the main character. Surprisingly it worked for the sidekick/ best friend, who spoke her mind but somehow it seemed right for her or it might just have been she was retaliating rather than starting it. The mystery was good though, there wasn't a great deal of suspects but I never did guess the killer.
Sally after her divorce returns home to run a bakery with her best friend. Where she expects to keep measuring her father for his coffin, playing adult as her mother plays out second childhood, even seeing the first boy who she ever loved and broke her heart but what she didn't expect was find the woman who broke up her marriage dead in her bakery. Sally and her best friend Jose will have to solve her murder if they want to stay in business. The dead woman owned the local spa and between her staff and her family they have a number of suspects to investigate but when another body is found with more of there cookies laying next to the body, will things get to hot for the pair? Speaking of hot Sally's first love is back in the picture and the detective investigating the murder is also taking a closer look at her than he needs. She is ready to catch a killer and a date?
I liked the narrator. She used a number of different voices to play the characters making it an enjoyable listen.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Story well written and great narration

Story well written and great narration.

I am voluntarily reviewing a copy I received free from the author.

Cosy mystery.

This was an entertaining, light-weight listen, for lovers of cosy mysteries. I enjoyed the narration by Karen Rose Richter, who managed managed male and female voices equally well.

Sally Muccio (Sal) has returned to her home town to open up a cookie shop with her best friend Josie Sullivan. She has left behind a loser of a husband and is ready to make a new start. Unfortunately her ex-husband's lover is set on making problems for Sal, ultimately falling dead on her doorstep. Sal feels compelled to find out why Amanda died, before her business collapses under suspicion that her cookies were responsible.

There are some real quirky characters in here. Sal's family are nuts; her mother thinks she's still a teenager and dresses appropriately, and her father is obsessed by death, funerals and coffins. An elderly neighbour is constantly rude, for no apparent reason. Thank goodness for the wise old grandmother who holds them all together.
To add interest, two sexy men are chasing Sal, an ex boyfriend, and a dashing policeman, who will she go out to dinner with?

A fun listen, got the ironing done with a smile on my face :)

Winnie the Pooh could drink you under the table.

An enjoyable plot made irritating by one of the (unintentionally) silliest heroines this reader has encountered. So accident prone, the question has to be posed - does she suffer from some disability as yet unrecognised? - the lead protagonist Sally who, with her school (and best) friend Josie, has opened a cookie shop in her home town, is recently divorced. Ten years before she had broken with her one true love boyfriend because she caught him drunk in the arms of another girl. On the rebound, she was swept away by Colin, marrying him five years later only then to discover what an unfaithful hound he was. Dah!
When Sally's nemesis is found dead on the porch of her shop, Sally and Josie go into investigative action to find the culprit despite being warned by the delectable policeman to stay out of it and 'leave it to the police.' Do they need the warnings? Of course not, blundering through interviews and nosing about as the fortunes in the fortune cookies become ever more foolish.

So, a mystery and a romance, of a sort (at least there is a load of angst spilt by Sally). For this reader, the main mystery was what on earth any of the men in her town saw in her? But, hey, I'm only a woman.

Yes, I am being harsh. It was a fun listen made much better by the narrator, Karen Rose Richter, whose pleasant vocal ntonation carried the story well with good voicing changes for the individual protagonists. And my thanks go to the rights holder who gifted me a complimentary copy of the book, via Audiobook Boom.. Not my cup of tea, perhaps, but I am sure that readers with a fondness for romance mixed into their less than stringent murder mysteries might love it.