Hayley Powell is a food and gossip columnist for a small newspaper in Bar Harbor, Maine. She's also a local sleuth, against the wishes of her detective brother-in-law. When a newcomer to the town is murdered during the annual Witches Ball, she can't resist investigating.
At the same time, her daughter is wavering between marrying and breaking up with her latest beau, Hayley's Halloween prep chore list is lengthening, and it looks like Bar Harbor is haunted.
Chapters of the mystery are interspersed with recipes for sandwiches and cocktails from Hayley's food column, each one enlivened with a story about friends and family.
The writing is folksy and the mystery is simple, but these books are always fun to read and I'm going to try out some of those recipes, too.

Set in Bar Harbor, Maine, DEATH OF A WICKED WITCH features Haley Powell, a food columnist for the local paper as the chief protagonist. This is the first book of this series that I have read although I did discover that there have been a dozen others that preceded this one. For this reader this offering was almost more cookbook than mystery since there were cocktail and sandwich recipes featured in Haley’s food columns which are liberally peppered throughout the narrative
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The story opens with Haley making a new friend, Trudy Lancaster, a food truck owner who has come to the newspaper office to place an ad for her fledgling business. The friendship is cut short when Trudy, while catering the town’s annual Halloween Witches Ball costume party at the home of a couple known as the Garbers, becomes a murder victim following a previous attempt on her life, and Haley makes it her business to discover “who dunnit”…….not an easy undertaking considering how many potential suspects there are.

I will admit that I was not fond of Haley’s new husband Bruce, who came across as a “wishy-washy” and a bit of a wimp….nor was her daughter Gemma a particularly charismatic character. She is not interested in her boyfriend Conner and is seriously considering breaking up with him until she sees another woman making moves on him. That’s when she becomes as possessive as a ‘dog with a bone”. The “handsy” and smitten Reverend Staples was a bit over the top too.

This also seems to be the year of novels featuring LGBTQ characters as friends, relatives and sidekicks. In this particular instance the honor goes to Haley’s brother Randy and his police chief husband, Sergio Alvarez..

Some of the business names were intriguing like the Burger She Wrote and Wicked Wiches food trucks and a couple of the cocktail recipes looked tasty. Additionally, there were a couple of interesting twists in the tale but not enough to make me want to go back and read the previous installments.

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this new entry in the series was simply pleasant. It takes place during my favorite time of the year, and from the first chapters, I knew I would want to find out who had committed the murder. I like that characters are not perfect, but not so badly flawed that we hate them. They help to propel the story forward, and they all serve their purpose in Hayley's investigating. The mystery was well built, but some of the elements made me feel sorry for one of the characters.

It was also great that Gemma was very present in this book, her side story was fun. I hope we will see this aspect growing in futre books. Death of a Wicked Witch is great for both fans of this series and newcomers alike. There are no spoilers for previous books, which is great in my opinion. The recipes are a welcome bonus, and worth trying.

Not Lee Hollis’ best effort but still an enjoyable read. The opportunity to reconnect with well known characters is like seeing old friends. The recipes are always a treat!

This is a delightful and light hearted mystery. The characters are a bit eccentric but it is holiday themed. I adored the plot. It turned out to be alittle more complex than I had thought. I loved the twists and turns. I really enjoyed this wonderful cozy. I definitely recommend it

I love love love this series. It was a great addition to the series and I would recommend it to others. It was good to catch up and it was a quick light read

This is the first book by Lee Hollis that I have ever read. Most times I can read a book in the middle of a cozy mystery series and just jump right in.. This one I would definitely recommend to start this series from the beginning.. I did enjoy this book quite alot, but I think I would have liked it even more if I had read all of the other books.
I loved all of the recepies strewn throughout the story, I def. want to try a couple of them!
The story starts out with a new couple moving into town. Trudy is going to be running a new food truck, and her husband Ted is going to be taking over as the new minister when the current one retires.
Ted and Trudy really hit it off with Hayley and Bruce and they seem to become fast friends. First Trudy gets poisoned with insecticide, then during the annual Halloween Party she is found dead inside of her food truck.
When her death is ruled as a homicide, Hayley decideds to start investigating on her own.
There are no end to the suspects that could have done it.. We have the owner of the other food truck in town, who was very upset someone was coming in to possibly take her customers. Also the current reverand who seems to be smitten with her, or his jealous wife who saw what her husbands been upto.. Or the greiving husband, whose marriage wasn't as perfect as it seemed..
I thought the mystery solving was really good, I had no idea until a bit before it was revealed who the killer actually was.
I would definitely read more of this author and especially this series, but I would start at the beginning first lol..

cozy-mystery, culinary, murder, amateur-sleuth, situational-humor, family-dynamics, friendship, holiday-themed, verbal-humor, small-business, small-town

I hadn't read anything in this series, but I will now! It's a really good cozy mystery complete with interesting characters, plot twists, red herrings and misdirections, good laughs, and even recipes. The publisher's blurb is a good hook and no recap or spoilers here. I loved it!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

A lovely quick cozy mystery. I haven't read any of this series.
I really enjoyed it.
Enjoyed that there were recipes throughout the book.
Liked the banter with Hailey and Bruce.
The minister was something else.
Didn't see who did it coming.

This book didn´t work so well for me, especially because of the writing style that kept throwing me off. I end up not finishing. The plot seems interesting, and I maybe try again in the future.

Lee Hollis’s new book Death of a Wicked Witch bewitches you, from the start. This mystery is hilarious, twisty, and cozy.

Trudy brings her delicious Wicked Wiches food truck to Bar Harbor with her husband Ted in tow. Trudy seems to grab the attention of every man. Ted has come to replace the current Reverend. They are greeted openly by the amazing Hayley and her husband Bruce. Hayley was lovely and a natural mother to her daughter and others. There are a great number of other characters that are fun to get to know. One of these town folks also has a rival food truck.

I did have the murderer figured out, but I could not figure out how it was done at all. There was a huge plot twist 75% of the way through the book that I did not see coming. There is a mini mystery and then the larger mystery which was another great plot twists well. I laughed throughout the entire story. The chapters were short, which kept me flying through the book. I read it in under 24 hours.

The book is perfect for those who love Halloween and witches but are not a fan of scary, graphic, or similar type books. I cannot wait to read the rest of the books in this series. It is one of the best mysteries I have read this year!

I received an electronic advanced reader copy from Kensington Books through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

Food trucks and Halloween, a great escape on a very hot day making me wish for cooler weather and food! Well written and enjoyable.

Death of a Wicked Witch was a fun, fast paced and engaging cosy mystery. The characters were well developed and interesting, even if I didn't like them all. However, I did enjoy all the recipes in the book and I'm tempted to try a few of them.

I enjoyed this book. Reading this series is like reading old friends. I like the characters and the story is well-paced so there are no slow parts. Hayley gets involved when a new food truck owner is murdered and finds the killer is a man who went to high school with her. The reveal is very exciting. #DeathofaWickedWitch #NetGalley

I loved visiting Bar Harbor last year on vacation so I was very happy to 'return' while reading this book. I am drawn to the characters and their relationships with other.

The mystery had twists and turns and kept me guessing until almost the end. Although Hayley manages to get herself into some 'not-too-safe', I had no doubt that she could take care of herself.

I'm ready for the next one and hope that we don't have wait too long.

The authors (Lee Hollis is actually two people) have done it again they have written a suspenseful book that keeps the reader engaged from the first page to the last.
This entry introduces some interesting new characters and says goodbye, in a rather unique fashion, to two continuing characters.
The old pastor is retiring and the new one arrives with a wife who owns a food truck she is an amazing cook who makes delicious sandwiches. Bad things befall her and the main suspect is the owner of a rival food truck but as the story accelerates there are many twists and turns and ultimately a very satisfying ending.
The authors manage to keep one's interest and the pages fly by as one is completely engrossed in the story and eager for the denouement.
There is also a side story about Hailey's daughter and her boyfriend which adds to the interest. I wish there had been more of Mona and Liddy and Randy but perhaps next book which I will surely buy as I never miss a Lee Hollis.

I am going to start by saying that I think that cozy mysteries may just not be for me anymore. I have read a few lately and none have gotten above 3 stars for me. So if you enjoy cozy mysteries and you aren't going to critically read this book it might be for you. Additionally I did receive an ARC of this book and am reading it prior to release so some things may have been changed.
That being said, as someone who did critically read this book there are some things I didn't love. Hayley and her husband Bruce feel like they play too much into gender roles for me. She is the well meaning but slightly overbearing and busy body who has to stick her nose into everything. Bruce is the reluctant husband who has to be nagged into doing things constantly. Like there is a whole side plot where Bruce starts smoking. Hayley wants him to stop, tells him to stop and buys several things in order to basically force him to do so. They are both adults they should just talk about it. Also Hayley's brother in law Sergio is hispanic which is cool because yay diversity. But we get told not one but 3 separate times by different characters that English is his second language. This is the 13th book in the series, there has to be a better way to address the representation. I totally get that readers will probably pick up the books in a random order (I did) so you can't just front load the information and expect people to remember. But the way this is done starts teetering out of positive representation. The last negative thing I want to address is that the character who dies is seemingly sexually assaulted or at least repeatedly put into uncomfortable situations by the Reverend of the town. He is married but obviously is very into her. He ignores all of her cues and attempts to distance herself. The last time we see them together he has cornered her in her food truck and is trying to kiss her. And then after she dies he is the speaker at her funeral and continues to act openly into her. To the books credit, this is never treated as purely okay. It is depicted as pretty cringy and the main character does try to rescue her from a situation or two of the Reverend being cringy. But the Reverend has no true consequences for his actions. His wife blows up on him publicly a couple times ( good) but in the end they are together and it's treated like a midlife crisis. I get that this isn't the type of book to try to make a statement. But if you aren't going to make a statement you shouldn't be including clearly problematic things like this. There is no point and it does very little to further the story. There is also a surprise twin reveal, and I hate that. But that's probably more if a me thing.
I know it seems like I am being pretty harsh. But it's because this book could just be a fun time. It has a lot of great bones. I think the plotline with her daughter the boyfriend is nice. I think the mystery aspect was written decently and the reveal was surprising while making sense. The articles and recipes are cute. There is also minor but nice and non problematic queer rep. And I could probably deal with most of my problems with the book ( except the Reverend stuff) if it occurred on it's own. The problem is multiple things that are all slightly not great all at once. I think with some adjustments this book could have been something I would have enjoyed. As this is an ARC I am going to hold out some hope that maybe some of my problems will be addressed before it's official release.
Thank you to Net Galley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This author always delivers the goods.
A good cozy mystery with entertaining characters.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

This is the first book by Lee Hollis I've read and I wasn't disappointed. I liked everything about the book. The storyline flows effortlessly and the characters are interesting. I found myself laughing out loud at times. I'll be reading more in this series.

This is the 13th book in the Hayley Powell series. This series just keeps getting better. I loved the Halloween theme and definitely will be rereading this around the holiday. There is a new food truck in town called Wicked Wiches that serves sandwiches. The woman that owns and her husband are new to town and she is thrilled when she gets asked to cater an annual Halloween Wicked Witches ball. All is going well until Hayley and her daughter, Gemma, find her dead in her food truck. I loved that Gemma was involved with helping Hayley solve the case. The mystery was great. I had suspicions of where the story was heading but was wrong each time. I love the way everything came together. A five star read. I received a copy of this book from net galley in exchange for an honest review.