Book Review: The Chocolate Clown Corpse by JoAnna Carl (Chocoholic Mysteries #14)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Good story and characters

Cons: Story a little slow to get started

The Bottom Line:

Murder of a clown

Heats up Winter Carnival

Slow start to fun book

Nothing Funny about the Murder of a Clown

It’s amazing how time gets away from us.  I’ve been reading the Chocoholic series since it started, and I bought the latest book as soon as it came out.  Almost nine months later, I’m finally making the time to enjoy The Chocolate Clown Corpse, an entry that will please fans of the series.

This winter, the town of Warner Pier, Michigan, has themed their annual Winter Carnival around clowns.  All the businesses are getting into the spirit, and TenHuis Chocolade is even working on specially molded clown chocolates to have during this week.  Not only is Lee Woodyard overseeing the chocolate shop, but she’s on the carnival committee, so she has to make some appearances as a clown herself.  The only downside is that Moe Davidson, the owner of the clown shop next door to TenHuis Chocolade, was killed just the month before.  The homeless man who confessed to the crime is behind bars, but Moe would have done very well with the merchandise in his shop.

Things start to heat up the week before the carnival is set to open, however.  It starts with a phone call expressing surprise that anyone is accused of  Moe’s death.  Then Joe, Lee’s husband and a lawyer, is assigned to take over the case of the man accused of the crime, and Lee meets Moe’s family since she’d love to expand TenHuis Chocolade into the area next door.  The more she learns, the more Lee begins to question the official story.  With Aunt Nettie and Chief Hogan gone on vacation, can she figure out what is happening?

Like all the books in this series, the mystery is light yet satisfying.  I will say I felt things started off a bit slowly, but once the story got going, it was another page turner.  It is a little easy to spot the solution, but there is enough going on that it is still fun getting there.

I had hoped with Aunt Nettie and Chief Hogan out of town, we’d gets to see more of the other supporting cast.  Sadly, they still didn’t make more than their one or two scenes in this book.  I know I complain about this is almost every book, but I do wish we could see more of the supporting cast.

The characters we do interact with are wonderful, however.  Lee is a strong woman despite her tongue tangles, which are still present but kept to a minimum in the book.  Joe is just as strong, and I love the active part he plays in this book.  The suspects are real and interesting, and I really did grow to like them as the book progressed.

As usual for this series, there are no recipes.  Instead we get Chocolate Chats, which this time look at the history of chocolate in Latin America.

Like a piece of chocolate, these books are over much too quickly.  They may be light, but they are fun.  If that is what you are looking for, pick up The Chocolate Clown Corpse today.

And if you want earlier adventures, check out the rest of the Chocoholic Mysteries in order.