Candy Apple Dead
Series: A Candy Shop Mystery Book #1
Author: Sammi Carter
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Mystery
Page Count: 217
My Rating:
Book Summary
No visit to Paradise, Colorado, is complete without a stop at Divinity Candy Shop for a little taste of heaven. For owner Abby Shaw, it’s a sweet deal too. When her Aunt Grace passed away, Abby Shaw inherited Divinity—and with it the opportunity to leave her career as a corporate lawyer and dump her cheating husband. Now she spends her time serving up delectable treats—and performing the occasional deductive feat…
Making and selling sweets eases Abby’s heartache, but having Brandon Mills sweet on her eases it even more. The owner of a men’s clothing store, he invites Abby to the local merchants’ meeting where he’ll plead his case to extend the city’s annual arts festival. And then he wants to cap off the night with a romantic dinner for two.
But Brandon never shows. His store is destroyed by fire and his body discovered in the rubble—and Abby is shocked to find that few people in town mourn his death. Paradise’s business owners were threatened by Brandon’s ambitious nature—and several men felt threatened by the attention he showered on their wives. And when her brother becomes the number one suspect, Abby holds her own investigation to find out who really killed Brandon—for love or money…
Includes Candy Recipes
More Facts for Readers about our Sleuths & Setting:
Main Sleuth: Abby Shaw
Best friend/Sidekick: None
Physical Descriptions: Abby is 39, a white female, sturdy, not thin, not heavy-set, wild hair that’s hard to keep flat, average height, American.
Location: Paradise, Colorado (fictional), right beside the mountains.
Business: Abby owns the Divinity Candy Shop, left to her by her deceased aunt. The was formerly a corporate lawyer.
Time of Year: Middle of September, starting to get chilly
Pet: None, although she comes into possession of ‘Max’ a Doberman Pinscher
Love Interest: At first possibly Brandon Mills, then later Detective Pine Jarwarski
Family: Abby has an older brother named Wyatt who is 44, he’s married with kids and Abby is an estranged Aunt to them, having lived not in this town for the past 20 years. She has a Mom and Dad although they’re not close or in town either. She also has a cousin, named Karen who works in the candy shop for her part-time.
Diversity? Yes! Although the main sleuth and her family are white, and so is the victim, most of the characters and the main detective – there were some nice mentions of other diverse / inclusive characters… there’s the local theater director who is a woman of color, and there is the local mystery book shop owner who is also an older woman and a suspected lesbian (when you read you’ll see how respectfully this is speculated by the main sleuth). Just nice little mentions. I have a feeling these characters may get more ‘screen time’ in subsequent books, but they were little side characters this time around.
My Review
I was a little nervous at first to jump into this shorter mystery (only 217 pages) but it was great! ‘Candy Apple Dead’ is a nice early fall read, with a solid mystery that kept me guessing up until the end. There was a lot packed into these pages aside from the mystery; the sleuth’s backstory and how they came to possess the candy shop, explanation of family dynamics, town dynamics, lots of side character introductions (which I suspect laid a solid foundation for the next book), and a solid connection with the local detective.
I have to admit though – the main sleuth was very abrupt and indelicate in her questioning of suspects and hunting down information. At first I felt like her style was pretty jarring and not-at-all tactful but then I got to thinking… maybe that makes more sense because after all, she’s not a detective. This sleuth is a corporate lawyer turned candy shop owner, and how would she know how to approach people about a murder and her suspicions without coming right out with her questions? She hit a lot of roadblocks in her investigation because her abrupt questioning made people clam up. It was a little maddening at times! But then – I guess real life would be more like that… people not wanting a random person in their business, or people in general just holding back information because they think it’s idol gossip or not important. Maddening, but realistic.
Ugh! If you see something you should say something people! Kudos to the author for keeping it real and making it a believable set of reactions from all the characters. The sleuth’s own cousin / employee lays it on pretty thick too, with questioning *why* Abby was getting involved and not just letting the police handle it.
Speaking of which, I really like Detective Jarwarski. Abby was not flirty, nor was he back to her, the whole thing was very professional BUT **SPOILER** he totally asks her out at the end, and I love that! I’ll always be a fan of romance in my murder mysteries, and I’m not at all mad at or tired of the whole cop and sleuth getting together trope – it just makes sense!
This cozy depicted small town / little city dynamics really well and how other business owners act with one another (take it from a small business owner and main street dweller such as myself) it’s all very accurate. This was a nice short read and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series!
