Sprinkle with Murder

Author: Jenn McKinlay
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: #1 in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series
Type: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 240
Publisher: Berkley
First Published: March 2010
First Line: "Does she really think we don't see her?", Angie DeLaura asked her best friend and business partner Melanie Cooper."

Book Description from GoodReads:  Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura are finally living out their dream as the proud owners of the Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery. But their first big client is a nightmare. She's a bridezilla who wants 500 custom cupcakes for her wedding.

When Mel stumbles upon the bride-to-be dead-by-cupcake, she becomes the prime suspect. To save themselves and their business, the ladies need to find the real murderer, before the cupcake killer ices someone else.

My Review:  It's been awhile since I sat down with a nice cozy mystery.  Cozy mysteries should have a nice balance of light mystery, quirky characters and typically happen in quaint settings like a bookshop, antiques shop or, in this case, a cupcake bakery.

Yes, cupcakes, murder and mayhem ensure in this new series.  The main characters, Mel and Angie balance each other out with their strong personalities and the secondary characters added to the story line but weren't quite as quirky or as memorable as I was hoping.  There was a mystery to be solved, albeit the details regarding the recipes sometimes were more pronounced than the murder itself.   And while the bakery was a unique (and delicious) setting I did find the mystery a little predictable and I question how these cupcake bakers will be able to get themselves into the centre of many (believable) murders in the future.  

Overall, this was a decent start to a new series and I plan to pick up the second book in the series to see how the characters and plot lines proceed and see if more focus is put on the mystery the second time around.

My Rating: 3/5 stars