New Book Review: Cookies and Crime

 Title: Cookies and Crime 

Author: Avery Kent

Date: 2023

Publisher: Avery Kent

Quote: "I work at city hall and he is by far the worst guy I've ever worked for."

That's Mayor McCray, a cheater on every level. The coziest kind of murder mystery is one where someone who'll never be missed may or may not even have been murdered. Cookies and Crime is that kind; Annie comes back to the little town of Bishops Landing to take over the bakery from an aunt, who is recovering nicely from a stroke, and before the bakery even reopens, the mayor is found dead at the foot of the stairs. The fat, lazy old sheriff, eager to retire, says there are no murders in Bishops Landing and obviously the mayor just fell downstairs, but what was he doing there in the first place? Since he was trespassing, did he fall, or was he pushed?

Annie and her best childhood friend Casey, who is still in town, loved playing Nancy Drew as little girls (and Casey still resents not having been hired as a police officer). Naturally they start playing detectives again. They're never in much danger as they begin to find out all the dirt on all the most influential people in town.

There aren't that many people in town and, so far, their secrets aren't all that dirty...but someone will go to jail, someone who's not married will start to show signs of pregnancy, and the lazy old sheriff will be replaced by the end of this short novel. The new sheriff warns Annie not to try to do his job, but it looks as if Casey's going to be on his payroll for the next mystery in the series.

If readers like really cozy mysteries, there should be a series. A hardcover publisher would probably do something about Kent's tendency to punctuate by ear--sometimes English does need to be punctuated by grammatical rules--but otherwise Cookies and Crime is a satisfying read...though Kent never does get around to telling us where Bishops Landing is supposed to be located. Spelling and word choices are all that tell us it's in Canada. Let's just say it's the sort of town Anne Shirley would have loved.

One piece of suspense that's left for the sequel is whether Annie's faithful golden retriever, Cookie, would try to protect Annie or run away if Annie were in danger. When Annie only thinks she's in danger, Cookie is brave!