Murder Freshly Baked

Murder Freshly Baked by Vannetta Chapman is the third book in the Amish Village Mystery series.  Amber Bowman is the manager of The Amish Village in Middlebury, Indiana.  Things have been going well for the last few months and Amber is looking forward to the weddings of her friends, Hannah and Mary.  Then she starts receiving strange emails.  The emails are bad poetry stating that pies and other pastries are poisoned.    Then someone starts leaving pies with poetry around town.  Then the Poison Poet (as they have dubbed him) starts making it personal and attacking Amber.  Hannah, Tate, Amber, Jesse, Pam and friends set out to find who is behind the notes and pies.  Who is the Poison Poet?

Preston Johnstone is still having PTSD episodes (he was the homeless man in the first book and now works and lives in the Amish Village).  He is dating Zoey Quinn who is a nurse who works at the nursing home where Preston’s father lives.  Zoey has found out about a special program that pairs dogs with people with PTSD.  Zoey has convinced Preston to fill out an application for a dog.  Preston is not sure how a dog will help him, but he is willing to give it a chance (with a lot of encouragement from Amber, Tate, and Zoey).  Preston would like to get over his past so he can have a future.  Hopefully, Mocha (his new PTSD dog) will help him so Preston can go after the girl of his dreams.

Hannah (manager of coffee shop) and Mary (The Cat’s Meow) are busy planning their weddings.  They are having a double wedding.  Their finance’s are finishing up their rooms.  They will be living at the Miller’s home (the boy’s parents).   Hannah, Mary, Pam (assistant manager at The Village), and Amber are worried about their friends.  Martha Gingerich, Letha Keim, and Georgia Small are all dating Ryan Duvall.  Ryan is something of a playboy.  He is Englisch and two of the girls are Amish.  No one wants to see them hurt, but it is destined to happen.  Ryan would never convert to the Amish faith and Martha and Letha would not want to leave the Amish.  Then after Ryan finishes The Race for the Cure he is shot dead.  Who killed him?  Was he shot because of philandering ways or because of his gambling problem? 

Murder Freshly Baked is a charming novel.  The book contained great, likeable characters, a little romance, a beautiful setting, and good mysteries.  However, I did not enjoy this book as much as the first two in the series.  I liked that Preston was getting help for his PTSD, but I did not enjoy all the scenes of his time in Afghanistan.  They did not seem to go with the book (maybe if there had been only one or two scenes).  I liked hearing about how dogs can help people with PTSD.  What a great program. I give Murder Freshly Baked 4 out of 5 stars.  Murder Freshly Baked will be out Tuesday, June 9, 2015!

I received a complimentary copy of Murder Freshly Baked from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  The review and opinions expressed are my own.

I hope all of you had a good Monday!  If you like my reviews, please sign up to receive them via email or become a follower (right hand side of the page).  I am currently reading Myth and Magic by Mae Clair.  It is supposed to be a paranormal mystery, but turned out to be a romance with a little mystery (will be reviewing soon).  There are some good shows on tonight (finally)!  Devious Maids, The Whispers, The Fosters, and UnReal (which is much better than I thought it would be).  Have a great evening and Happy Reading!

Kris

The Avid Reader