Felicity Koerber is finally getting her life together. She has a fiancé, her bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand has become a gathering spot for the community, and she is ready to embrace whatever the future holds. She’s ready for another launch party – despite the disaster at her grand opening, when she’d first gotten involved with solving a murder. And this time she’s embracing her status as a sleuth. She’s hosting a murder mystery weekend to celebrate the new Mystery Flavor line of craft chocolate bars. She’s held a contest to choose the attendees, who will all stay at her aunt’s flip hotel and enjoy the island. It’s all supposed to be perfectly random – only, Felicity starts to uncover connections between her guests. When one of them winds up murdered, Felicity has to keep her aunt from becoming the main suspect.
The killer is very clearly calling Felicity out, leaving clues that mean little to anyone other than her. But that doesn’t narrow down the suspect pool. Her guests are there because they love the true crime podcast she’s been featured on. And she can’t decide whether the killer wants her to catch them – or just wants to taunt her.
Meanwhile, Felicity is also playing host to her future in-laws and discovers that her fiancé’s sister, who is also a cop, is very competitive. Can Felicity hold her own and make a good impression, while keeping her business together and her aunt out of jail? And can Felicity solve it in time to protect the people she cares about from becoming additional victims?
Satchmo the retired police dog turned therapy dog returns to help her sniff out a few clues, and one of the guests brings along a ferret named Cheeseburger, who keeps showing up in the most unexpected places.
Amber Royer writes the Chocoverse comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, and the Bean to Bar Mysteries. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach.
Amber and her husband live in the DFW Area, where you can often find them hiking or taking landscape/architecture/wildlife photographs.
If you are very nice to Amber, she might make you cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes, of course! Amber blogs about creative writing techniques and all things chocolate at www.amberroyer.com.
A Chocolate is Announced is a fun whodunnit with a robust
cast of characters. The seventh in The Bean to Bar series, this was my
first foray into the series that centers around Felicity Koerber.
Felicity owns Greetings and Felicitations, a craft chocolate
bar, with her fiancé, Logan. The novel opens with Felicity filming a promotion
for the upcoming Murder Mystery Weekend they are hosting to promote and
celebrate their new line of Mystery Flavor Bars.
She is nervous about the event because she has “a bad habit
of collecting classic books, which then somehow lead to me getting involved
with murders.” This is the deft backstory of the previous novels of the series
that drew inspiration from novels like Murder on the Orient Express.
As the story unfolds we’re introduced to a wide cast of
characters: the bubbly teenager, the former nemesis turned podcast host, the fiancé,
the best friend, the aunt, and then, of course, the guests for the Murder
Mystery Weekend – who are interconnected in too many ways to be coincidental.
When Felicity finds a vintage copy of Frankenstein under
her pillow, she knows it’s a message. Someone is announcing their intention to
murder.
Before she is even able to scramble to her fiance’s room, a
shot is fired and the first victim is claimed.
As Felicity and Logan work to find the killer, the story
twists and turns with unexpected revelations and ever-increasing threats from
the murderer.
This Agatha Christie-esque story captured my imagination from
beginning to end. I particularly loved the setting: a vintage hotel in the
process of being restored on Galveston Island. As a Southeast Texas native, I
enjoyed the references to places I grew up visiting every summer.
Royer’s use of animals as characters was entertaining – not
only were they cute, but they were also integral to the plot. Knightly the
rabbit and Cheeseburger the ferret added a fun element to the story.
I was fascinated by the detailed descriptions of the cacao plant
and the chocolate-making process. I learned so much as the characters enjoyed a
chocolate tasting that was similar to a wine tasting, including flavor profiles
and tannins.
The revelation of the murderer was satisfying, as was the ending
that wrapped up the loose threads of the characters.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves cozy mysteries.
If you loved this
story, you’ll enjoy shows like Murder, She Wrote, Moonlighting, Psych, and
Castle. You might also enjoy films like Miss Marple: A Murder is
Announced, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for such a kind and generous review.
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