I really liked the debut story in a new mystery series. After coming in second in a reality baking show, Hope Early has moved home to Jefferson, Connecticut and is trying her hand at being a food blogger. With some of her past notoriety, this endeavor is slowly becoming a going concern. She shares an assistant with fellow townsperson/author, Audrey Bloom. During Audrey's combination garden tour and book signing. local realtor Peaches McCoy, uninvited and not well liked, is found dead. Unfortunately for Hope, her realtor sister Claire turns out to be the number one suspect. I really liked how the story wove into both some of the past and present of these new characters. And often I felt nods to some other great series, the interplay between the characters was a lot of fun and seemed so real.

The Uninvited Corpse
By Debra Sennefelder
Kensington
April 2018

Review by Cynthia Chow


Magazine editor to competition reality show loser to blogger. While it would seem to indicate the downswing of someone’s career, Hope Early is optimistic that things are finally looking up. Aided by promotional, if occasionally embarrassing, guest stints on the Morning Pete talk radio show, her “Hope at Home” lifestyle blog is becoming profitable as she gains more followers and sponsors. Hope loves nothing more than baking, organizing, and cleaning, so her obsessive housekeeping actually works for her benefit. And despite being known around her hometown of Jefferson, Connecticut mostly as the runner-up winner for the Culinary Channel’s The Sweet Taste of Success, Hope is happy to be back and spending time with her sister Claire, reporter friend Drew Adams, and maybe-sorta dating the Chief of Police Ethan Cahill. It’s real estate agent Claire who finagles an invitation to Audrey Bloom’s garden tour, with the hope of getting the Society to Protect Jefferson to ease their protests against Lionel Whitcomb’s new developments. Claire hopes to win Lionel away from her rival and nemesis Peaches McCoy, whose-take-no-prisoners attitude stirs up more than her share of enemies. Unfortunately, when “Miz Pits” is found dead in Harrison Bloom’s study, it’s Claire who becomes the primary suspect in the eyes of personality-challenged investigating Detective Sam Reid.

Spurred on by Jane Merrifield, who forty years ago authored a popular mystery series, Hope aims her detail-oriented focus towards proving her sister’s innocence and even finding the real murder. After all, Hope was once the most talented amateur sleuth of her high school Mystery Book Club, so interrogating the attendees of the home garden tour should be a snap. Real life isn’t fiction though, and Hope finds herself alienating her neighbors and even becoming the target of attacks by a ruthless killer.

This debut mystery series takes a refreshing approach by not having the answers easily laid out Hope, with her discovering that people don’t always appreciate being accused of murder. As Hope learns, not everyone is eager to spill their secrets when asked. Even though this may be a small town, local politics and reputations are as important as in any bustling metropolis. Hope truly is an engaging and likable character, and it will be fascinating to know more about her past with the magazine and especially her exploits on a reality cooking competition show. There is more than enough intrigue to make this a promising launch for a new series full of household hints, romance, and humorous banter.

The Uninvited Corpse is the first book in Debra Sennefelder Food Blogger Mysteries series. It's also the first cozy mystery I've read. Hope returns home after several things go wrong in her life, but things get even more complicated when the bodies start piling up. This was a fun read and I look forward to the other books in this series.

This is a great book with a wonderful story and well developed characters. The story flowed very well and was very enjoyable. This book will keep you reading long into the night and you will not want to put this book down until you finish. This was such a great read and full of surprises. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader’s copy of this book. The free book held no determination on my personal review.

Cute beginning to a new cozy mystery series by Debra Sennefelder. I enjoyed learning about blogging. I didn't realize how stressful it is!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book, which I voluntarily reviewed.

This is a tough review to write. When you request a review copy of a book, you expect to like that book and have good things to say about it. In this case, that did not happen.

Our main character - Hope - is horribly socially awkward. Perhaps this was why she was chosen to be on a reality TV show - drama sells after all. It may also explain why she's a blogger. It doesn't explain how she became an editor at a magazine, but, okay.

As the story goes along, Hope alienates EVERYONE around her except for the police chief who is so in love with her that he can't help himself. And it's okay, because she loves him too, except she won't actually admit it. This scenario grows old very, very fast.

About 1/3 of the way through, I put the book down and had little motivation to get back to it so it waited. And waited. Feeling the need to actually complete the book and get this review written, I went back to it, but found I still didn't like the story, didn't care about the characters and generally didn't care about who did it. With every passing page, I struggled to keep my eyes open. To make things worse, it seemed like the author threw everything trendy in real life at this book and it just didn't work.

Not to mention that being a successful blogger means actually blogging - something Hope didn't really do during this story.

In the end, this book wasn't for me. Given the size and diversity of the cozy market, I believe that it will be for someone else out there.

After her divorce and her stint on a reality TV baking show, Hope Early leaves New York City to return to her hometown of Jefferson, Connecticut. Hope is slowly adjusting to her new career as a food blogger and small-town life. Hope and her real estate agent sister Claire attend a spring garden tour where she finds Peaches McCoy dead in the library. Peaches had not been invited to the tour, so no one knows why she was there. Unfortunately, Claire quickly becomes the prime suspect as she hated Peaches for stealing some recent real estate commissions from her. Although warned off by the police, Hope launches her own investigation. Another murder occurs and Hope ends up in an accident when a stolen van forces her off the road. Is Hope getting close to identifying the killer? Peaches' obsession to find the hit-and-run driver who killed her mother is important.

This is a strong debut and enjoyable book in the new Food Blogger mystery series.

I received an eARC via Netgalley and Kensington with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.

This started out a little slow but I wound up really enjoying it. I will say up until the reveal, I had NO idea who did it!! The pace of the book was a little up and down but overall but it was a really good book, especially for a debut novel. This was a good combination of Small Town Rivals and Reality type television all rolled up in one. Not sure what adventures the next book will hold, but I will definitely read it!

The Uninvited Corpse by Debra Sennefelder is the first novel in Food Blogger Mysteries. Hope Early lives in a lovely farmhouse in Jefferson, Connecticut where she writes her blog, Hope at Home. Hope is off to attend Audrey Bloom’s book signing and garden tour. Claire, Hope’s sister and a local real estate agent, insists on coming with her in the hopes that Peaches McCoy will be attendance. Claire is upset that Peaches, a rival real estate agent, stole another listing from her and this one was for the controversial new Whitcomb development. The event is to promote Audrey’s new book. Hope, who just cannot help herself, is cleaning up after the guests. She goes into the study and finds it in a disarray with Peaches dead on the floor. Detective Sam Reid zeros in on Claire as the killer. With encouragement from her friends since she has always been good at solving mysteries, Hope delves into the case. The next night Hope receives a call from Vanessa stating she needs to talk to her right away. Hope arrives at Vanessa’s house to find the door open and Vanessa dead. What did Vanessa know that got her killed? Hope needs to expose the killer before Claire ends up doing twenty to life. Someone is unhappy with Hope’s snooping and attempts to put her out of commission. Can Hope reveal the killer before Claire is fitted for an orange jumpsuit?

The Uninvited Corpse is easy to read (I am starting with the positive aspects). I wish, though, that the author had taken the time to establish Hope’s background. We are told what happened to her recently and why she has moved to Jefferson to start over (several times), but I wanted to know more about her. The Uninvited Corpse starts off with the author introducing us to a plethora of characters. There was just one after another and it was difficult to keep them all straight. My favorite character is Jane Merrifield, a mystery writer. I wish the author had made her the main character (I really liked her). The book seemed disjointed/choppy. It lacked an ease and flow. There is the cliché nasty detective that frequently reminds Hope to quit investigating. As an investigator, Hope is severely lacking. She was good as a teen in solving mysteries as a part of a library group (which we are told many times), but that was in theory (like me solving cozy mysteries). Hope asks bad questions and lacks subtlety. She goes around antagonizing people all around the town (she was relentless). I am curious if anyone else wondered why Claire never had dinner with her kids? There was a repetition of information. The same details are mentioned repeatedly. And let me not forget the love triangle. Why do author’s keep putting love triangles in cozy mysteries? The mystery was simple and easily solved. The why takes longer to become apparent. When Hope is not out investigating, she is baking, painting, cooking, chatting, writing blog posts and cleaning (a bit obsessive about it). Since The Uninvited Corpse is the first book, I am hoping Debra Sennefelder will work out the kinks before the next Food Blogger Mystery. I am giving The Uninvited Corpse 3 out of 5 stars.

An entertaining first instalment in a new cozy mystery series! I liked that the main character, Hope, was a food and lifestyle blogger, a profession I hadn't yet come across in the genre. I enjoyed reading about her blog posts, which included food, home decor, entertaining, and other craft projects.
I had a couple pet peeves with this book, one being the amount of characters introduced early in the novel. I know that with cozy mysteries the colourful cast of characters is often key to the story but I feel like this book introduced so many characters rapid fire and that a lot to them were not really introduced very well so I felt like I was scrambling to figure out who these people were a bit. My one other complaint is that Hope got a bit aggressive with her amateur sleuthing; there were a few times she was questioning towns people that I thought she was getting out of line, something that I usually don't find when reading cozies. Other then that this is a good start to a new series!

Leaving behind a failed career as a magazine editor and an embarrassing stint on a reality baking show, newly divorced lifestyle entrepreneur Hope Early thought things were finally on the upswing–until she comes face-to-face with a murderer . . .

Hope’s schedule is already jam packed with recipe testing and shameless plugs for her food blog as she rushes off to attend a spring garden tour in the charming town of Jefferson, Connecticut. Unfortunately, it isn’t the perfectly arranged potted plants that grab her attention–it’s the bloody body of reviled real estate agent Peaches McCoy . . .

One of the tour guests committed murder, and all eyes are on Hope’s younger sister, Claire Dixon–who, at best, saw Peaches as a professional rival. And suspicions really heat up when another murder occurs the following night. Now, with two messy murders shaking Jefferson and all evidence pointing to Claire, Hope must set aside her burgeoning brand to prove her sister’s innocence. But the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she gets to a killer intent on making sure her life goes permanently out of style . . .
http://debrasennefelder.com/work/

The Writers Who Kill blog started eight years ago. Our original intention was to blog about the craft of writing, our development as writers (many of whom were not yet published), and to promote not only our own works, but those of other up and coming writers. I hope we have fulfilled those goals, but every now and then a writer appears who provides the opportunity to showcase the writing/publishing process and fulfill the goals of the blog. This is the case of Debra Sennefelder, who recently joined WWK and whose debut book, The Uninvited Corpse, will be released on March 27th.

Debra’s main character, Hope Early, is a food blogger who works from her home. After a series of professional and personal failures, she moves from Manhattan to her small hometown in Connecticut. Unfortunately, she is constantly reminded of those days due to people recognizing her from a reality bake-off TV show, which she lost to another contestant. Clearly, her fifteen minutes of fame smacks now and then, but she’s also learned to use it to her advantage—when investigating. E. B. Davis

How long did take you to write the rough draft and then revise the manuscript? I’m not sure of how long it took to write the first draft or how long the revisions took. During that time, I was working full-time so I was writing evenings and weekends. It was a full year between when I began writing The Uninvited Corpse and submitted it an agent for possible representation.



Did you work with a critique group? Was that a beneficial experience? Were they your beta readers or did you put it out to a larger group to obtain them? I work with a critique partner, author Ellie Ashe. We’ve been critiquing for several years, and she has been invaluable to me. Working with her has definitely made me a better writer.

How many queries did you submit before getting an agent? I was offered representation by the first agent I queried, and I accepted the offer.

Are you contracted for one book or did you get a three-book deal? The offer from Kensington was a three-book deal.

How were the editors at Kensington to work with? Did they require additional rewrites? My editor at Kensington is wonderful to work with. He’s very organized, which I love! There were no additional rewrites for The Uninvited Corpse other than copy edits.

Were you involved in the cover art selection? I was asked to submit three to four ideas for the cover and the art department took it from there. I think they did a wonderful job.

Why did your main character, Hope Early, decide to move back to her Connecticut hometown, Jefferson? After her appearance on the reality baking show and the divorce, she had to make a decision about what to do next. The city kind of lost its luster for her and going back home to start the next chapter in her life seemed like the right thing to do.

Is there a National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day? Yes, there is. It’s a wonderful day! This year it’s on October 28th.

What is a keeping room? They originated in colonial times. They were a multi-use room for attached to the kitchen which was usually the only room in the house with heat. The cooking, living and sometimes sleeping were done in that space. I think of them as early-concept great rooms that we love today in our homes and that’s the space in Hope’s house.

Although Hope grew up in Jefferson, she and her sister don’t seem particularly country oriented. Hope lived most of her adult life in NYC, but she has a barn, in which houses her brood of chickens. Why chickens? When I moved to Connecticut from New York City after I married, we raised ducks. I didn’t necessarily want fresh chicken eggs, but Hope wanted fresh eggs for her baking, and the chickens are great for insect control.

Hope grew up in Jefferson, and she’s known most of the characters since she was a child. That’s a good and bad thing. What’s with frenemy, Meg Griffith? She seems excessively mean? Hope and Meg have a lot of history. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of the past. With Hope now living back in Jefferson, they’ll have time to work out their differences.

Jane Merrifield is a lovely character. Why did she stop writing mysteries? Oh, I’m so glad you enjoyed Jane. She’s so much fun to write. I know when I’m going to write a scene with Jane, I’m going to have a good time. Jane stopped writing when she married and began a family. The Merrifield family has a long history in Jefferson, and she took on many community roles. She just couldn’t do it all. But, maybe one day she’ll get back to writing.

Will possible beau Police Chief Ethan have competition from lawyer and former detective, Matthew? Maybe. Maybe not. I can’t give any spoilers.

What’s next for Hope? In book two, The Hidden Corpse, Hope is taking a food photography class with fellow bloggers and gets tangled up in a case involving a missing woman.

A good first try, but perhaps too much included. I found myself reminded of other books and media, most obviously, The Women but also Agatha Christie, with the kindly older lady, underestimated, who keeps egging on our "detective". I've put that in quotes because there's very little detection going on here. This is firmly in the mode of the relatable woman who bumbles around until someone tries to kill her, and ta da! that's the bad guy.

Various hints and memories are dropped that aren't fully explained or followed up on, perhaps so the author can spin future series volumes, but I won't be continuing. The characters were cardboard in most cases, and while I don't regret the time spent reading this, I have no reason to continue with more. These ladies are well-off, pampered, suburban housewives, and we've got too many stories already about the type. Constantly hearing about the beautifully restored farmhouse just made me wonder how a working blogger could afford a multi-million-dollar property like that in Connecticut.

With so many ingredients - real estate, recipes, potential romance, writing, gardening, and many more - I think this wanted to be a fluffy soufflé of all kinds of aspirations, but I thought it fell flat. Particularly since I had trouble keeping all the gardening women straight, particularly the ones who were nasty for no reason.

Wow, home run for this new series! I was drawn into wanting to read the book by the cover (I am a sucker for a great cover and this one is terrific) but the writing and characters sucked me in and kept me turning the pages faster and faster until I was at the end shaking my head in disbelief! I love that this book is about a food blogger and I was giddy to turn to the back to find some of those recipes I was dreaming about, listed out nicely in the back of the book for me to test out. Let's hope that this is the first in a long line of future books in this series! A great start to what looks to be a super fun and yummy series!

A exciting cozy debut of this wonderful new series !
The Uninvited Corpse by Debra Sennefelder is the 1st book in a Food Blogger Mystery series, and my first book by this author. I have never read a cozy series about blogging before and this one captured me from the beginning to the end.
Hope Early is a food and lifestyle blogger, of her blog Hope at Home, who returns home to Jefferson, Connecticut. She has left a shattered past behind her and is happily busy building her blog and starting over with her sister and making friends in Jefferson as she settles in. The descriptions of this tech savvy protagonist were a interesting and fun addition to this series. .
Hope and her sister are invited to a garden party and a book signing. When a murder occurs of one of her sisters rivals, Hope must work fast to discover the killer and save her sister. who is the prime suspect.
This is a delightful series. The descriptions of Jefferson Connecticut were perfect, the supporting characters all fun and added depth to the story. Hope is a likable hard working protagonist who will prove to be a talented sleuth. The clues kept me guessing to the end and I enjoyed all the twist and turns of the clues. All in all a very enjoyable debut and I look forward to the next in series.
Thank you for the ARC which did not influence my review. Please continue this series as its great fun to read and a promising new series on the cozy horizon.

I received a copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. This book was a fun cozy mystery and the first in a new food blogger mystery series. I really enjoyed the character development in the book and it was easy to feel like you could get to know the characters. Hope has returned home from NYC to her small Connecticut town and is a blogger. She attends a garden party where the uninvited guest, a local realtor, is found dead. Hope feels that she has to investigate when her sister Claire becomes a prime suspect. I was surprised at the ending. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good light cozy mystery.

Sometimes you have to deal with uninvited guests. When such a guest turns up a corpse, you end up with a lot more trouble on your hands!
I enjoyed the food blogger concept and thought the main character was likable. The mystery was well rounded and I thought the author was inventive with how the ending played out.
One thing that kept me from enjoying every aspect of the book was that I had a hard time keeping some of the characters straight since there were so many. Maybe a cast of characters in the beginning would have been helpful.
That said, I plan on reading more books in this series.

Hope Early is trying hard to get her life back in order. First, she was a magazine editor and it wasn’t a successful career, to say the least. Then, she was on a reality baking show. It, too, was unsuccessful. Not to mention her marriage, also, failed. Hope goes home to the small town of Jefferson in Connecticut.

Hope is now a very successful blogger. She shares all kinds of cooking tips with her audience. All is going quite well until she attends a spring garden tour. There she finds the dead body of Peaches McCoy. A hated real estate agent who was not invited to the tour. No one knows why she was there, but no one seems all that unhappy with her death. In fact, Hope’s own sister, Claire, was not a fan of Peaches McCoy either.

Claire quickly becomes the prime suspect in the murder. Hope isn’t about to let her sister take the rap for a murder she knows she did not commit. Although warned off by the local police, Hope launches her own investigation. She’s determined to find the real killer and clear her sister’s name in the process.

The premise of this cozy mystery series grabbed my attention right away. Hope is a blogger and the setting was one I could identify with it. It’s a fast-moving, well plotted cozy mystery. Readers are kept guessing until the end.

The characters are portrayed vividly. They come to life with the first page of this book. I couldn’t put this one down. I just had to know how it would end.

The Uninvited Corpse is the first book in the series. If this one is any indication, there will be many more books to follow.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

I know from experience blogging isn’t easy but Hope Early has her foodie/lifestyle blog well under control and making money. That is until she finds the body of local real estate agent Peaches McCoy in the middle of a spring garden tour. Peaches wasn’t even invited to this party, how did she end up pushing up daisies? Unfortunately, her sister, Claire, also a local real estate agent, tagged along to the event with Hope. Due to her rivalry with the victim, she quickly becomes the prime murder suspect. When another murder is committed, Hope’s only hope is to dig into the murders herself because her sister isn’t taking the police’s investigation seriously. While fielding offers to appear on more reality television and trying to keep up with her recipes and blog, she now finds herself following a murderer and getting so close she may be the next dead body they dig up.

The author has got this series off to a great start.

Due to the garden party setting readers are introduced to a lot of characters all at once but soon we are given enough information to keep them all straight. Hope and her sister are nothing alike. Hope is a hard worker, recently divorced and trying to make a success out of her 15 minutes of reality show fame. Many say she should have won that baking show. Claire who probably works hard too, is not very likable, kind of irritating, but Hope loves her and the relationship for them is normal. Hope’s best friend just happens to be the chief of police but that may develop into something more in the future. The secondary cast started to really come alive as the story continued.

The plot is full of red herrings. Almost everyone at the party had an opportunity to kill Peaches, but others could have entered the garden without being seen, so the suspect list is pretty long. The story flows at a nice pace as readers follow along with Hope and her investigation. I had a theory about the guilty party a bit before Hope but the reveal still was a bit of surprise.

I liked the way the story ended with Hope’s housewarming party with an unexpected guest. No corpse this time.

I am looking forward to the next book in this series. I am excited for Hope’s story to continue and maybe Claire will be a little more likable 🙂 The author has laid a nice foundation and left plenty of room for her characters to evolve as the series continues.

What I like about this first book in a new series - it has food, a blogger, and a murder!  Yup, all my favorite things to happen in a cozy mystery.  Ok so maybe there are more things I like, but I found this new series to be intriguing.  Hope has had her 15 minutes of fame on a reality television show and now she is quite content back in the town where she grew up, writing a blog, and creating new recipes.  She has had some hard knocks in her life.  She has a strong character and s fiercely loyal to her friends and family.  She even fancies the local sheriff, a long time friend and now possibly more.

I liked that there was no shortage of suspects.  There were quite a few people at the party that could have killed Peaches, but her sister is not one of them despite being the prime suspect in Peaches murder.  I kept trying to rule out characters but it was tough, and when the true murderer was revealed I was quite shocked!  The author did a great job of hiding the true killer until the end.

I always enjoy reading the first book in a new series because you never know if there is a winning idea behind the series or not.  I think the author has a great series and I can't wait to see what happens in the next book.

We give this 4 paws up!