Reviewed
by: Sam Waite
Genre:
Cozy Mystery
Approximate
word count: 70-75,000
words
Availability
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes &
Noble, or Smashwords store
Author:
Janel
Gradowiski
is the author of three series in different genres. These are he
Culinary Competition Mystery series, women's fiction in the The
Bartonville Series, and the 6:1 Series, a set of themed short
fiction. She lives in Michigan with her two kids and a dog.
For
more, visit Gradowski's website.
Description:
A
widely despised chef is murdered just before a cooking contest. A
suspect in an investigation by an incompetent policeman takes it upon
herself to solve the crime.
Appraisal:
I have
a fondness for mysteries and enjoy cooking, so I picked up Chicken
Soup & Homicide with
expectations for a fun read. I was largely disappointed. The story
oozed onto the page like cold molasses as the author spent the first
half of the novel dropping names of cupcakes instead of clues. The
mystery itself isn’t developed until the second half of the novel
and then is resolved quickly with the trite device of a confession as
the killer holds the heroine at knifepoint.
The
reasons for the murder are not hinted at earlier, so there is nothing
for the reader to figure out. The characters were not fleshed out
with quirks and idiosyncrasies that color the best cozies.
Attempts
at humor were similarly flat.
“But
even if Pitts was like a Greek god in bed, was the slimeball worth
getting caught in attempted murder?”
The
text is burdened with unneeded words.
“Disappointment
tasted like a bitter aspirin tablet dissolving on her tongue with no
water to wash it down.”
Perhaps
that was an attempt to disguise the cliché “Disappointment was a
bitter pill.”
“Holly
plucked a square of tissue paper from a box on the showcase. She used
it to pick up one of the cupcakes and place it inside a clear plastic
clamshell box.”
Tells
nothing more than, “Holly placed a cupcake in a box.”
“As
she handed over her money in exchange for the cupcake, she tried her
hand at being wise.”
Couldn’t
we just say, “As she paid for the cupcake…”?
To the
writer’s credit there are some clever or at least cute plays on the
language.
"There
was nothing like starting the evening out with a whine course.”
“…the
noise was still at a frequency that would burrow into a dream and
give a person nightmares about going to the dentist.”
“Snowflakes
were materializing in the darkness and slamming into the glass. It
sounded like a thousand mice toenails scratching, trying to get in.”
Even
some good bits, however, could use an edit to pare words. “Snowflakes
in the darkness slammed against the glass like a thousand mice
scratching to get in.”
Format/Typo
Issues:
A few,
but not enough to distract.
Rating:
*** Three Stars
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