Bake Offed by Maya Corrigan

 Bake Offed

Book Summary

Managing a fitness club café and collaborating on recipes with her grandfather are Val Deniston’s usual specialties, only she’s about to set sail into another murder case—this time at a mystery lovers convention!

When the Deadly Desserts bake-off lives up to its name, Val and Granddad turn up the heat on a killer . . .

 

The Maryland Mystery Fan Fest sounds like exactly the fun getaway cafe manager Val Deniston and her grandfather could use. Granddad will even compete in a dessert competition in which contestants assume the roles of cooks to famous fictional sleuths. Playing Nero Wolfe’s gourmet cook Fritz is an exciting challenge for Granddad. A restaurant manager is playing Lord Peter Wimsey’s valet and cook Bunter. But Granddad is steamed to learn who will be playing Sherlock Holmes’s landlady, Mrs. Hudson—his nemesis Cynthia Sweet, who he believes ripped off his five-ingredient theme from his column “Codger Cook” to use in her own recipe column.

Apparently, he isn’t the only one who has a beef with his not-so-sweet competitor. When she’s found dead in her room with the teakettle whistling, it’s up to Val and her grandfather to sort through the festival goers to find out who was most definitely not a fan of Cynthia Sweet . . .

 

Includes delicious five-ingredient recipes!

My Thoughts

Bake Offed by Maya Corrigan is the eighth A Five-Ingredient Mystery.  It can be read as a standalone for those new to the series.  Val and her grandfather are fun characters.  I find Granddad to be a hoot.  He is a lively character.   You never know what he will do next (always has something up his sleeve).  Val and Granddad are attending the Maryland Mystery Fest where they are hoping to have a fun weekend.  Unfortunately, the woman in the hotel room next to Val ends up dead.  Don Myer, Val’s grandfather, is hired by the victim’s stepdaughter to investigate the crime.  The victim was not well-liked (that is putting it mildly) so there are several suspects.  Val and Granddad ask questions and search for clues.  They share their intel with Detective Roy Chesterfield.  There is a red herring or two as well as a twist.  It was a fun mystery to solve.  I like how the mysteries mentioned in the book were incorporated into the whodunit.  There is humor scattered throughout the story especially regarding a missing recipe box. I enjoyed reading Bake Offed.  I am looking forward to Val and Granddad’s next adventure.  There are five ingredient recipes at the end of the book.  Bake Offed is a sweet treat with an anomalous note, a penetrating noise, a curious crime, mystery mania, a pilfered recipe box, and a caught crook.

Bake Offed is available from Amazon*.  You can find the other books in A Five-Ingredient Mysteries here.  You can follow Maya Corrigan on Amazon and you will receive an email when she has a new book release.  Thank you for dropping by today.  I am off to work on our Christmas tree.  I enjoy taking it from an empty tree to a decorated one.  When I was a child, we were only allowed to put one ornament on the tree in the place pointed out to us (and then my mother usually adjusted it).  This might explain why I like to decorate for every holiday.  I will return on Tuesday, December 6 with The Sunshine Girls by Molly Fader.  I hope that you have a joyful weekend.  Take care and Happy Reading!

Kris

The Avid Reader 

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