Cyanide and Sensibility
Series: A Jane Austen Tea Society Mystery Book #3
Author: Katie Oliver
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Page Count: 320
My Rating:
Book Summary
Murder is on the menu and Phaedra Brighton is called on to serve up justice in the latest Jane Austen Tea Society Mystery.
While Phaedra Brighton might not have a Mr. Darcy (yet), she’s quite content with her loving family and loyal cat. Phaedra’s sister Hannah is the Jane to her Elizabeth, and Phaedra is ecstatic that Hannah has decided to move home for her next adventure—opening a business.
All of Laurel Springs is out in full force to celebrate the grand unveiling of Hannah’s new patisserie, Tout de Sweet, including local celebrity Rachel Brandon. Hannah is a master of her craft, with confections so divine, one bite will make you think you’ve died and gone to heaven.
Of course, you never want that to happen literally.
When one of Hannah’s famous dark chocolate cupcakes sends Rachel’s assistant to the hospital with poisoning, Hannah begs for Phaedra’s help to save her reputation and budding business. But Phaedra has more questions than answers: Who was the cupcake actually meant for? And how far is the culprit willing to go to take their target off the menu—permanently?
More Facts for Readers about our Sleuth & Setting:
Main Sleuth: Phaedra Brighton
Best friends (sort of): Lucy Liang and Marisol DuBois
Physical Description: Phaedra is white, either late twenties or early thirties and her appearance is a mirror of the famous Jane Austen character, Elizabeth Bennett.
Location: Laurel Springs, Virginia
Profession: Jane Austen scholar who teaches nineteenth century literature at Somerset University, a small liberal arts college.
Time of Year: December
Pet: Himalayan Cat name Whickham “Wicks”
Love Interest: Mark Selden
Family: Phaedra has a younger sister, a mom, dad (married), and Aunt.
Diversity? Yes! While most characters seem to be white, there is some diversity in culture and physicality. Lucy Liang is Asian (she’s adopted so I think we’ll learn more about her ancestry in the 3rd book), Marisol is plus-size and respectfully described and handled as a character, Mark Selden is white but he’s from England so it’s nice to not have all Americans, especially given the Jane Austen theme, Detective Morelli is described as being from an Italian family although he himself is American.
My Review
Possible spoilers ahead!
Sigh. Once again, I am sad to give a three star review. I want so badly to like this series, but it’s like all the lights are on and no one is home. I’m sorry to say that the author once again seemed jumbled up with her own desires about the direction to take the story in and the motivations of the characters. There’s simply too many elements and the author can’t keep up with them all. So many times I found myself internally yelling ‘scale back!’ in terms of all the pieces the author is trying to jam into the story which results in a sloppy finish and a rushed pace that feels choppy and nonsensical.
Probably the most aggravating development in this third book is the ‘relationship’ between Phaedra and Mark BECAUSE Phaedra acts like a teenager with anger issues. She does not read as an intelligent woman her thirties capable of rational thought or emotion. While reading about Phaedra’s ‘do I like him, do I not like him’ back and forth antics it really made me start thinking more about the author herself and her own love life (or possibly lack there of). It sounds unkind – but I really felt like possibly she hadn’t/hasn’t dated in a really long time and hence, doesn’t know how to write romance. And hey, that’s ok, because this is a cozy mystery and it’s not imperative to have a romance element, but I wish she had left it out all together because it was really hot/cold and pretty annoying. Poor Mark! Phaedra acts like a teenager and she is not worth the aggravation. It’s not cute, and heck, I could get behind a ‘real’ Darcy romance, but this is not it at all.
I continue to give this author the benefit of the doubt that maybe some of the random things she peppers in will be relevant to a later book, but if so, the setups do not leave me wanting more, they leave me feeling annoyed by the random off-shoots of information to keep track of – take Lucy’s side story for example – WHO CARES! I sure don’t, holy moly. And the ‘tea society’ – what tea society? It’s not cozy, it’s not pleasant, or fun, it’s basically non-existent and yet it’s what this whole series is called, the ‘Jane Austen Tea Society’. There’s no picturesque tea get togethers, no descriptions of clotted cream, or finger sandwiches, or even types of tea – it’s just some lame meetup once or twice in the book where they talk about the murder or random BS, there’s no ambience or charm to it, you don’t look forward to it as a reader.
Christmas? The Christmas vibes were not here in this books. I wish! I love Christmas, but this was a snooze. Like I said, this book has ALL of the elements that should make it a good cozy but the author fumbles every time. It’s rushed with no cohesive ‘time’ line, a teenage love interest, random tendrils of story, and a pretty lame murder plot. Seriously, the murderer told Phaedra and her dad TO THEIR FACES exactly how he intended for them to die – by getting in the damn car – and then when he lets them go and they GET IN THE CAR – they’re shocked that it’s been tampered with?? Come on!! Ain’t no way I’d get in that car if the murderer said he intended for me to die in it, isn’t it obvious that he tampered with it? Again – holy moly.
I’m sorry – but third time was not the charm when it comes to this series and if there are more in the future – I won’t be reading them. I tried, I really did.
