I pretty much only requested this book becasue the author had the same name as me. I'm not mad that I read it but I also probably wouldn't recommend it. It was your typical, predictable, cozy mystery. Like most cozy mysteries the setting was great, though.

This is the 5th book in the Pie Town Mystery series, I liked it. Val owns Pie Town, a bakery, and she’s solved mysteries before. When one of the contestants in the pumpkin pie competition is found crushed by a pumpkin, Val steps in to help solve the crime.
This cozy has likable characters and the plot moves along quickly. 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is a cozy mystery, and this is book is the 5th in the Pie Town Mystery series. I really enjoyed this book, and I really loved the characters. Nothing like a group of ladies that bakes and solves murders. I loved the mystery part of the book. There was enough twist and turns and drama to keep you reading, but there was not to much where you would not believe it could happen. It also has giant pumpkins, pie, and ton of other Halloween things, so there is a ton of things to love. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (Kensington Publishing Corporation) or author (Kirsten Weiss) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review about how I feel about the book, and I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

The author draws us into the well written mystery with all of it's clues, suspects, red herrings, twists and turns that lead us to an action packed conclusion. The characters are well written, well developed, engaging, unique, and interesting which makes them full of life and very relatable.

I found some of Charlene's antic to be a bit distracting and at times they seemed to be unneeded for the story line. I found Chief Shaw very annoying with how he acted towards Gordon all because he is jealous of the cases Gordon has solved in his career. I did enjoy all the interactions between Gordon and Val, it shows how much they feel and care about each other. It was nice to meet Val's stepmother and to see how much she wanted to get to know Val and be a part of her life. I have enjoyed this series since book 1 and I am looking forward to reading any new books that come along in the series to see what kind of situations that the characters find themselves getting into.

I received an ARC of this book from Kensington Books through NetGalley for my honest review.

This book is part of one of my favorite cozy series set in California. This book is set in fall and during a delightful pie baking contest. I loved reading about Val and Gordon competing against each other in a pumpkin pie contest. .The characters are always engaging and the mystery interesting, I recommend this book and series. If you have not read any books in this series you can read this book and not feel lost, but you will get hooked on this series and author.

Oh my goodness! This book was so much fun to read. Charlene is such a hoot and always up to something and I find myself laughing out loud at her shenanigans. The mystery was fun to solve and the characters are definitely enjoyable.

This is such a fun series! I loved the mystery with all its twists and turns, and the characters were authentic and relatable.

Loved this easy to read cozy from beginning to end! Great story and characters. New author to me I look forward to reading more books by her for sure! If you have to looked for a new cozy this is it!

Another FANTASTIC Cozy! I loved this book! Ok, I have not read the series, this being book 5, so I will now have to go back and acquire books 1 - 4 and learn all about how Ms. Val arrived along the Coast of Cali.

What I loved about this story, everything. The coastal vibe, as it is written in my backyard, was spot on. The atmosphere as it was woven into the storyline was amazingly well done. I could so visualize the book within my mind, playing out as a movie. And the side-kick, I am a huge sucker for a wonderful side kick in these cozies.

Highly suggest you pick up a copy and don’t worry about this being book five, you won’t miss a beat!

Time to return to Pie Town for a visit with Val and Charlene. The characters in this book/series make it one of my favorites. Charlene is eccentric and can be counted on for some shenanigans. This book has a main mystery with a good side mystery. I adore Pie Town and cannot wait to go back!

The annual Pumpkin Festival is on tap and Val is asked to judge the pumpkin pie contest. But before any pie can be tasted, Val discovers the local ophthalmologist crushed under a giant pumpkin. Was this a bizarre accident or something more sinister? How can you use a giant pumpkin as a murder weapon?

This was so much fun, and entertaining with all the usual characters and a few new ones and well-written.

Gourd to Death by Kirsten Weiss
Book #5: Pie Town Mystery Series
Source: NetGalley and Kensington
Rating: 4/5 stars

Pie Town is a veritable boomtown these days and Val can’t believe her good fortune. With the annual pumpkin festival just around the corner, Val is hoping for a windfall and a load of great publicity for Pie Town. Though she’s putting in more hours than ever before, Val is happy with her life and simply can’t imagine it any other way.

As always, Charlene is up to no good and she simply can’t wait for the crowds to crash the pumpkin festival. With Val in tow, Charlene trips off into the pre-dawn hours to see the giant pumpkins that will be judged once the festival actually begins. Val is blown away by the tremendous size of the gourds and thoroughly disappointed by the dead body under one of the entrants. Yeah, death by giant pumpkin shouldn’t be a thing, but then, Val and Charlene have a habit of finding the weird wherever they go.

Lickety split, Val and Charlene are forbidden by the police chief from “nosing around” the investigation and Gordon – the only actual detective on the force – is removed from the investigation. Oh, and Val’s stepmother has come to town because things couldn’t possibly get anymore weird. Val’s stepmother is gung-ho to become a part of Val’s life and that means getting to know her friends and poking around in her business. In short order, Val is up to her neck in batsh*t crazy old ladies, including a 100-year-old witch who is seemingly out to get Val and curse her life. Because why not?

Over the course of her investigation, Val gets run off the road, shot at by a pumpkin cannon, and followed relentlessly by an unknown interested party. Charlene gets a drone, Val’s stepmother evidently travels strapped and ready for action, and Gordon is stress eating. What’s more, Val is putting in more hours than ever before and showing up at Pie Town even when the shop is closed. There’s nothing about any of those things that isn’t unnerving, and Val’s got to figure out how to navigate everything and everyone in addition to finding a killer.

The Bottom Line: Yet again, Val spends a good portion of this book (YAY!) evaluating and reevaluating her life and her life choices. The hours she works are becoming problematic for her relationship with Gordon and Gordon’s life, even beyond being a detective is becoming more complicated. To be sure, the presence of Val’s stepmother is a doozy of a plot twist, and Charlene is stellar, as ever. Of course, I like Val and her antics, but I am finding that the minor characters in this series are far more interesting and entertaining. There’s such a wonderful vibe among the minor characters that really help bring the whole series to life. If everything and everyone continues to evolve as I believe they will, this series is only going to get strong the longer is continues.

The Pie Town series is so well written, fans of any sort of food show on tv will appreciate the attention to all details. It's fall, so Val is tapped to be a judge in a pie contest at a pumpkin festival. The unusual weapon that crushes a contestant to death has both Val and her buddy Charlene ready to suss out suspects and motives.

I absolutely enjoyed this cozy mystery! The perfect one sitting read, I fell for the characters and humor in this book. I plan to get the previous 4 books to read because I just plan loved this one! The mystery wasn’t obvious, the main character Val owns a pie shop and solves crimes with her trusty sidekick and pie crust maker Charlene!! If you enjoy cozy mysteries, read this one for a good time! 😉

Thank you @netgalley and @kensingtonbooms for my digital copy of the book to review!

Gourd To Death is the perfect cozy for fall time. It is the fifth book in the Pie Town Mystery series by Kirsten Weiss. The story starts off with our main characters finding a dead body under a giant pumpkin! Nothing screams cozy mystery more than death by pumpkin. This was my first book in the series and I loved it. Charlene has a snarky attitude that made me laugh out loud throughout the book. I'm a sucker for a book that involves murder and baking. If you are looking for the perfect cozy to read during the fall months, this is it. I will definitely be going back and starting the series from the being.

Thank you to the publisher (Kensington Publishing Corporation) and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

This series is a little bit of a treat for me because it is so different from my usual tastes. I never thought that I would enjoy a series all about pies, but here I am, reading about them every time Kirsten puts a book out.

However, when I was reading this book, I was waiting for that excitement to kick in and unfortunately, it didn’t quite spark enough to make a fire. There were some really good parts and some really great parts too, but for some reason, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I have the previous ones. I’m not sure if the mystery didn’t grab me enough or perhaps it was just the characters, but I put this book down too many times than I would’ve liked and that’s unusual for me with this author. That being said, perhaps I was just expecting more.

Nevertheless, I am hoping the next book will enthrall me better. I look forward to reading it.

Loved this cozy mystery set in a coastal California town loved the festive fall vibes and definitely will pick up the others in the series!

I always enjoy a Kirsten Weiss mystery. This is the 5th installment of the Pie Town series set in a small town on the California coast. Val and her crazy curmudgeon pie crust maker, Charlene, become involved in a series of murders when they discover the body of a local ophthalmologist crushed under a giant pumpkin at the local pumpkin festival. When the inept chief of police takes Val's boyfriend, detective Gordon Carmichael, off the case she and Charlene decide to solve the mystery on their own. The book includes the usual odd cast of characters and keeps the reader guessing as Val is spooked by a local "witch", tries to develop a relationship with her reticent stepbrother, meets her somewhat interfering stepmother, and dodges several attempts to shut her up permanently. As usual, Weiss has written a winner.

What better way to gear up for Halloween than with a culinary cozy mystery that amps up the spooky? Things have always been a little kooky in San Nicholas, California, especially given that pie-maker Val Harris’ best friend is the elderly if sprightly Charlene McCree, a woman who firmly believes that a local pastor is a werewolf and who once nearly started a riot over UFO sightings. So when San Nicholas rolls out its October Pumpkin Festival, there’s plenty of atmosphere to go around, what with a haunted house, corn maze and pumpkin cannons to go along with competitions for largest pumpkin and best pie.

Given that she’s the owner of Pie Town, Val is asked to judge that last competition in a blind taste-testing. Her police detective boyfriend, Gordon Carmichael, will be entering for the first time and is understandably hush hush about his recipe. But scary Old Mrs Thistleblossom has won the competition for several years running, and doesn’t seem above hexing anyone who doesn’t judge her pies superior to all others. Add to this pranksters from neighboring San Adrian and a surprise visit from a stepmother Val has never met, and Val has plenty on her plate even without stumbling across the corpse of a woman pinned beneath a gigantic pumpkin.

Upset by recent good publicity Gordon has been receiving in the local press, Chief Shaw yanks him off the case despite him being first on scene. The chief wants to solve the case himself, but neither Gordon nor Val trusts the judgment of someone who would put his only detective on cases better suited for rookie beat cops. They quietly set about trying to figure out who could possibly have it in for local ophthalmologist Dr Kara Levant, even as their friends and family do their best to (hilariously) help or hinder their investigations.

Honestly, everyone here is just the cutest even as they risk their lives trying to bring a killer to justice. Val and Charlene especially have a delightful patter going on, with Val often forced to play the mature, responsible foil to Charlene’s loose cannon ways. It was also very cute how their relationship with Charlene’s frenemy Marla evolved. On a slightly more serious note, it was lovely how Val and her stepmother Takako got to know one another, as well as how Val realized that maybe she was using Pie Town as a crutch, burying herself in her work so as to never have time to think about much else (barring murder.) This was another wonderful installment in the series that also had me totally craving pumpkin pies in all their forms.

But since, in my household, my husband is the undisputed pumpkin pie champion, I was actually pretty relieved to find that the recipe included in this volume would not have me tilting at his crown:

QUOTE
Val's Pumpkin Bread

1 ⅓ cup flour
¾ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
⅛ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
⅓ cup shortening
1 ⅓ cup sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup cooked and mashed pumpkin (or canned)
⅓ cup cooking sherry
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a medium mixing bowl, cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Add two eggs to the mixing bowl, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Stir in pumpkin. Add dry ingredients and then cooking sherry. Fold in nuts.

Pour into 9x5 loaf pan.

Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 60 minutes. Use a toothpick to test for doneness.
END QUOTE

Oh, I loved this! Incredibly moist and rich, it was a wonderful quick bread that I’m still thinking about several days after gobbling it all up. I used canned pumpkin for convenience and skipped the walnuts by choice, and really loved how uncomplicated this was to make! The end result tasted like I spent far more time on it than I actually did, which is always the hallmark of a terrific recipe, and one I’ll likely make again soon. I might add chocolate chips though next time, for added deliciousness.

Next week, with my apologies to Thanksgiving, we head to the Midwest to start in on some Christmas-themed culinary cozies, kicking off with a yummy appetizer that’s sure to be a hit at all your (non-vegetarian) holiday parties no matter what the theme or occasion. Do join me!

Gourd to Death (Pie Town Mystery #5)
Kristen Weiss

Gourd to Death by Kristen Weiss is the 5th book in the Pie Town Mystery series. Although it can be read as a standalone, reading the books in order will give a better experience in reading this well loved series. If you are looking for the perfect cozy mystery that is fall themed - this is the one for you. I enjoyed this a lot and got me in the mood for fall - the pumpkin patches, fall festivals and everything fall themed. I loved reading about Val the owner of Pie Town and Charlene her side kick make the best sleuthing duo. The writing was enjoyable and highly entertaining and makes for the best page turner for me and a wonderful escape read I highly recommend. If you enjoy cozy mysteries, this is a must read and cannot be missed.