Town in a Lobster Stew
Series: A Candy Holliday Mystery Book #2
Author: B. B. Haywood
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Page Count: 384
My Rating:
Book Summary
Things start to boil over at the annual Lobster Stew Cook-Off when an award-winning recipe is stolen and a seven-time contest champion mysteriously disappears-leaving Candy no choice but to find out who in Cape Willington, Maine, would get steamed enough to break the law.
More Facts for Readers about our Sleuth:
Main Sleuth: Candy Holliday (age 36)
Best friend/ Sidekick: Maggie Tremont
Physical Description: White female, fit, active, green eyes, blonde hair
Location: Cape Willington, Maine (formerly from Boston, MA)
Time of Year: May (Memorial Day weekend)
Business: Runs Holliday’s Blueberry Acres with her dad, and is a journalist for The Cape Crier
Pet: None, although she has chickens that she calls “the girls”
Love Interest: Ben Clayton, the editor of The Cape Crier. She is divorced.
Family: Her Dad is Doc Holliday, Mom is deceased, no siblings
Cussing? No
Diversity? Not so much. It appears that most of the characters are Caucasian, non-Hispanic. However, there is a lovely diner waitress name Juanita, who has more of a role in this book, and I believe she is described as an African American woman. I feel like we’ll be seeing more and more of her in the series.
My Review
I couldn’t wait to read book 2 in the Candy Holliday Murder Mystery series, “Town in a Lobster Stew” by B. B. Haywood. We’re once again in the town of Cape Willington, Maine and Candy has really found her footing as the new community correspondent of The Cape Crier, and as the unofficial town sleuth. The annual Lobster Stew Cook-off is fast approaching so when she’s asked to recover a stolen award-winning lobster recipe for Wilma Mae time is of the essence. But when the recovery mission turns to murder, secret meetings, stew judging, hiding in a lighthouse, and just plain trying to stay alive – Candy is in over her head.
I can’t get enough of B. B. Haywood’s writing style. The whole way through this book there is such a smooth flow and at the end of each chapter there is a tiny cliff hanger that made me want to keep turning the pages and reading onward. The book opens with the murder from the perspective of the victim, so it sets me in the frame of mind where I have to know how and why this happened to them. There’s that instant connection.
This book, like the previous book, has a really active voice that makes things exciting. There is a lot of detail so we get that sense of the town, the goings on, the characters, but the whole time we’re focused on the mystery. We don’t get lost in the mundane, for which I am always grateful.
And can I just say – that as a vegan – I appreciated that although the theme of this book was the lobster stew cook-off, I didn’t feel distraught. There was no focus on animal suffering and the food was really the backdrop for the events that needed to happen. Most of the stew descriptions could easily have been talking about a veggie stew, so there was no focus on the little lobsters.
I’m really looking forward to Book 3!
