Silenced by Sugar (Cookies & Chance Mysteries Book 5)

Catherine
Bruns
Genre: 
Mystery

Sally Muccio Donovan and Josie Sullivan are close friends who run a cookie shop together--Sally’s Samples.  The shop is experiencing a seasonal sales slowdown, when Donna Dooley, a popular talk show host on the Food Network, visits.  She is interviewing past winners of Cookie Crusades, wondering if they would like to be featured on her show, Someone’s in the Kitchen with Donna. Excitement abounds until Donna’s personal assistant, Kelly Thompson, drops by with the details of the show.  Kelly and Josie have a past, and it’s filled with jealousy, sabotage, and failure.  During the show taping, things go from bad to worse, and the ensuing mayhem becomes a viral YouTube sensation. When a dead body is found shortly thereafter, Josie becomes a prime suspect.  

There is much to like in this book.  The “good” characters are believable and supportive, and the “not-so-good” characters are sufficiently unlikable. The pacing slows occasionally, yet the story moves along nicely most of the time.  Sally comes from a quirky family that is a lot of fun to read, and her grandmother is characterized beautifully.  Some of the main characters could have been more fully-realized; however, that may have occurred in prior books in the series.  There is enough tension to keep the reader interested in the story. While the ending is well-written, it is somewhat predictable. There is a nice set-up for the next book in the series, and the author includes some delicious-sounding recipes at the end.

Carey Sullivan