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Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Book Review: A Christmas Candy Killing by Christina Romeril (Killer Chocolate Mysteries #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Good characters and a well crafted mystery
Cons: A bit too much background early on
The Bottom Line:
Death before Christmas
What secret led to murder?
Promising debut



Sweetly Festive Debut

If you follow my blog regularly, you know that I love Christmas and I love culinary cozies.  So when A Christmas Candy Killing crossed my radar, its combination of the two naturally caught my attention.  I’m glad it did.

Twin sisters Alex and Hanna have settled in a small town in Montana, where they have opened Murder and Mayhem, a mystery bookstore that also sells the delicious chocolates that Hanna creates.  They’ve lived in town for a few years now, and have made friends with many of their neighbors.  For Alex, one of her closest friends is Jane, who leads the mystery book club that meets in the store.  As the December meeting comes to an end, Jane confides to Alex that she thinks she’s found someone from one of her true crime shows living in their town.  Since Jane has made this assertion before, Alex doesn’t take it too seriously, but she does agree to go to Jane’s the next morning to review the video.

When Alex arrives the next morning, she finds Jane’s dead body.  The police are quick to think that this was a robbery gone wrong, and Zach, the local handyman, makes a great suspect.  Alex, however, thinks that Jane might have been right about finding a killer this time.  Can she figure what happened to her friend?

The book started a little slowly, giving us plenty of background on Alex and Hanna.  Yes, we were getting the beginning threads of the plot as well, but there are lots of asides I’m not sure we needed, or at least needed right then.

However, it wasn’t only a couple of chapters into the book when Alex finds Jane’s body, and the story picks up from there.  We have some solid suspects, and they aren’t exactly forth coming, which is always great in a mystery.  I did guess the killer a couple chapters before Alex figured it out, but I had missed most of the clues.  I really appreciated how they were sprinkled in.

The characters are good.  They start out a little thin, but as the book progresses, I feel like we got to know them better.  I suspect as the series progresses, they will be fleshed out further.  Likewise, the setting could come to life just a little more, but I think that will happen as the series goes along.

And this isn’t to say either of these things were bad.  I enjoyed the setting, and the Christmas timing was a lot of fun.  Alex, Hanna, and some of the other characters are definitely interesting, and I want to spend more time with them.  And the suspects kept me guessing until I figured out who the killer was.

If you are looking for directions on making some delicious sounding chocolates, you’ll find detailed instructions at the end of the book, along with a couple of fantastic sounding recipes.

A Christmas Candy Killing introduces us to a new setting and new characters I’m looking forward to visiting again.  Grab some chocolate and settle down for a delicious debut.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

I’m reviewing this book as part of a blog tour.  Check out the rest of the stops here.

And enter the tour wide giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

4 comments:

  1. This looks like a fun Christmas read.

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  2. Can't wait to read this, and a new Author for me too

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  3. This sounds good. I love Christmas books too and cozies.

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  4. This book looks like a great read and this series sounds like it has so much promise. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

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