Member Reviews
I missed book #3, but it didn't impact my reading of this book. We are briefly told who died in the last book, but it didn't really matter much to this story or the community the author is building.
After three books, I'm still rather ambivalent about the series. I haven't really warmed up to Hope and the recurring secondary characters though the story lines and Hope's world is quite full and detailed.
I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
Such a great series! The plot and setting will engross you and the cast of characters are so engaging. I truly feel like I am right there with Hope, Drew, and Jane. I need some friends like that.
While this series is on the lighter side of the mystery genre (cozy), the suspense is great. Its a great story when it can make you laugh out loud and sit on the edge of your seat.
I look forward to this series continuing on for quite some time.
I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. This is a great cozy mystery that kept me guessing until the end.
This has a lot going for it. Podcasts are big, especially true crime and Hope's blog and cooking class idea are very well thought out. This true crime cold case hits close to home, as it is the mom of a childhood friend that went missing.
This series is turning into one of my favorites. I look forward to the next in the series each time, and this time delivered a great story once again. The main female character is great, she has just the right amount of curiosity. She doesn't usually make stupid decisions, and I like that about the character. The supporting 'cast' is great too. Though, I'm not that crazy about her boyfriend, Ethan. He doesn't come across as appreciating Hope, takes her for granted. Once again, I'll be patiently waiting for another Debra Sennefelder book to be released.
Hope Early has achieved her dream of being a full-time food blogger in Jefferson, Connecticut, and is quickly expanding with interested sponsors. The narrative has some great support characters including her sister Claire and Ethan, her police chief boyfriend. She has fur babies: dog Bigelow and Princess the cat. She also has a few chickens, including Poppy, and I loved that the animals are given winsome personalities.
Hope additionally is creating a blogging class at the local library. She is looking forward to her first class when she is informed of the return of the daughter of a woman who went missing twenty years ago. She quickly becomes embroiled in the quest to discover what happened when the daughter is found dead and it doesn’t appear to be an accident.
What was a cold case turns hot quickly as another body turns up and Hope is strongly warned off. Between testing recipes, creating her content, and caring for her animals, she continues with her interviews gleaning little clues along the way.
In the meantime, she shares instructional materials with her class (and the reader) regarding some of the mysteries of blogging, social media, and SEO, which I particularly enjoyed, although parts of the narrative sagged for me.
The conclusion settles all the threads and suggests Hope may expand her blogging efforts into podcasting in her next entry to the series. 3.5 stars
Debra Sennefelder provides us with a slow cook mystery that makes you sniff the air with appreciation!
The snow is coming down in Jefferson, leading Hope Early to make lots of comfort food for her blog (with friends and family being the grateful recipients!), when she goes to see her sister's staging shop she discovers that the apartment above is being rented out to an old school friend she hasn't seen from graduation. The friend (Dev0n) runs a podcast dealing with cold cases as a way of coping with the fact that her own mother disappeared 20 years ago, and when Devon and Hope chat Devon seems to think that she can solve this case (as she has done with others). It seems though that not everyone is happy with Devon digging up the past and when she dies a couple of days after arriving in town and the apartment is ransacked it seems she was getting too close for someone's comfort.
Now Hope has taken up where Devon left off ... and she just has to hope that she doesn't end up dead and buried as well!
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Twenty years ago on Valentine’s Day, a woman went missing. The mother of Hope’s friend Devon Markham. She was never found and now Devon is back in Jefferson, Connecticut to find out what happened to her mom and she asks Hope for her assistance. But the very next day, Devon is missing and all her notes about her mother’s case are gone too. Later, Devon is found dead after what appears to be a traffic accident but Hope knows better. Devon was onto the killer’s trail and had to be stopped. Now Hope has picked up the case and is determined to catch the killer even though she may die trying.
Hope Early’s blog is far more successful than my blog with corporate sponsors and a huge following. She is so busy she has hired an assistant to help her meet all her commitments. She also has a little help with her chickens and home projects. Teaching a class about starting a blog seems like a natural fit. She has a little spare time to spend with Boyfriend/Chief of Police Ethan Cahill but they both get busier when there is yet another murder investigation.
Hope is an interesting amateur sleuth and she is all in to find the person who killed her friend as well as solving a 20-year-old case. She receives some nice assists from friend Drew and her sister Claire. These core characters are all very well developed. I love the way they work together to a common goal. The bit of sibling rivalry between Claire and Hope is always spot-on.
This mystery really tugged on my heartstrings. How awful to lose your mother with no explanation. Did she walk away from her family? Was she kidnapped? Is she alive somewhere? or dead nearby? I totally understood Devon’s need to find the truth and was so upset when her body was found. I was so wrapped up in the story my suspect list was all over the place and I never honed in on anyone. I was intrigued by all the information Devon had gathered about her mom and that she had done other “Search for the Missing” podcasts before tackling the one closest to her heart. Ms. Sennefelder does an excellent job of blending some intense situations with some lighthearted moments to keep the story well in the cozy realm but some of Hope’s tactics made me a little nervous. All the clues were cleverly placed and the big reveal was a total surprise.
I love the food blogger theme of this series. I always seem to learn something from Hope even though our blogs are totally different. The recipes she posts had my tastebuds tingling. Yes, the recipes are included at the end of the book.
The Corpse Who Knew Too Much had a different feel than other books in this series. The characters are engaging, and the story really grabbed me but my heart really clung to Devon and her story. I really loved the ending and that Hope has now dipped into the idea of podcasts. I am excited to see how she may use them going forward.
The Corpse Who Knew Too Much is a cozy mystery featuring food blogger Hope Early. Hope finds herself playing detective to help solve the case of a missing person. Her high school friend Devon's mother disappeared twenty years ago. Devon has started a true crime podcast and asks Hope to help solve the mystery. As Hope investigates, more murders occur and she finds herself in danger.
I wanted to read this novel because I love "foodie" books, was intrigued by the blogging theme, and find missing person cold cases fascinating.
This is the fourth book in the Food Blogger Mysteries series. I have not read the earlier books and had a hard time keeping up with all the characters in this novel. A cast of characters page would be tremendously helpful. I suspect this is a novel best read in order with the series, not as a standalone.
The book is well written, with strong descriptions. Hope's food blogging was very interesting, and there is even a section with delicious sounding recipes, including Three-Cheese Lasagna, Rustic Apple Pie, and Sugar Cookies.
There were a number of possible suspects and the mystery kept me guessing! Hope discovered the murderer's identity before I did.
I always love cozy mysteries that feature pets, and enjoyed Bigelow, the rescue dog, and Princess, the cat.
I think that cozy mystery readers who also have an interest in cooking or blogging will be especially interested in The Corpse Who Knew Too Much.
The Corpse Who Knew Too Much is the fourth installment in the A Food blogger Mysteries series featuring blogger, Hope Early and set in the small town of Jefferson, Connecticut.
The mystery centers on a 20-year-old cold case involving the missing mother of Hope’s friend, Devon. Devon is now running a true-crime podcast and is back in town with plans to investigate her mother’s disappearance herself and asks for Hope’s help. But when her friend is killed, Hope realizes she has to uncover the truth.
I love this series and I can’t recommend this enough!!!
Another great installment in the Food Blogger Mystery series. Hope is probably the busiest sleuths in any series. If you haven't read any of the other books in this series you can totally read this book and not feel lost. The mystery is good, however I did figure out who the killer was before the book ended. The book was great and the recipes sound scrumptious a must read for anyone who loves a good foodie cozy
This is such a fun series, and I had a great time with this cozy mystery. I loved the plot, the twists and turns, and the characters!
Hope is balancing her food blog with teaching her first blogging class. She is also getting into podcasts particularly a cold case crime one hosted by her childhood friend, Devon. Devon is currently featuring her own mother's disappearance and has asked for Hope's help. When her friend's apartment is ransacked and her body is found, Hope knows Devon was close to the truth. The mystery was strong. The characters are not my favorite, but I do not dislike them enough to avoid the series.
It seemed like Hope was everyone’s bashing board, all because of her curiosity, I thought she needed to put them in their place, but she allowed them to wring her through the guilty mill, which was very sad, I was beginning to like her gutsiness. Putting all that aside, it was enjoyable, captivating, and darn right intriguing with a bit of wise saying, you could never know a person fully, no matter how much you think you do. This was an enjoyable read, about a twenty-year secret that refuses to come to light and a puzzle that didn’t want to be solved, leaving death in its wake.
Hope has the perfect job for someone who likes to cook and write, a food blogger, and now she is adding teacher to her list of incredible talents. In the newest addition to the culinary "A Food Blogger Mystery" series, The Corpse Who Knew Too Much, Hope is busy solving a mystery and finding a killer while trying to keep herself out of trouble. But it isn't going to be easy, and she ends up doing precisely what she swore she wouldn't, investigating a homicide of an old school friend.
Characters in this series have endless traits that are endearing, and some that are irritating. Hope and her sister, Claire, always seem to be on opposite sides when it comes to sleuthing. Not because they don't want the crimes solved, they just have vastly different ways of being involved. As business people, Hope, a culinary blogger, and her sister, a home stager, both know what it takes to make things work, and even when they don't see eye-to-eye, they respect and love each other. Hope's boyfriend Ethan, the chief of police, doesn't play as big of a role in this book as he has in the past. I would have liked to have Ethan more involved. Readers will love Drew and want to have him in every story.
There are plenty of suspects and a good mystery which is well written, entertaining, and will keep readers guessing. Twists and turns are peppered throughout The Corpse Who Knew Too Much, and motives are easy to understand. This book could stand on its own, and anyone who has not read any of the other books in the series will have no problem figuring out the main character's roles. The recipes sound delicious and are easy to follow if you want to try your hand at cooking one of them or all of them. I love the blogger aspect of these books; it is very much in sync with today's world. I am happy to recommend this book and the entire series to anyone who enjoys great characters, delightful recipes, and a mystery you won't figure out on the first page.
Great read by a new author for me. The plot is well written and enticing to the reader. The author writes in a way that makes the reader feel like part of The story.
Princess Fuzzypants here: Anyone who follows my reviews knows I have a real “thing” about heroines who blithely wander into dangerous situations when they are supposed to be intelligent women. I also have difficulty with heroines who steamroller other characters in an effort to dig out the truth. In the beginning of the book, I was having this problem with Hope.
I understood that the mother of one of friends had simply vanished one day twenty years ago and the daughter, haunted by the memory, had started a podcast to highlight lost women and had returned home to find out what had happened to her mother. Devon asks Hope to get involved and Hope, even though her beau is the chief of police, accepts. Hope can become quite obsessed and she is not the most adept at asking questions in a diplomatic way. However, in a flash of clarity, she develops self-awareness and begins to question her tactics.
One thing I do like about her is she is not one to keep relevant information away from the police. So often heroines like to explore their suspicions fully before handing over the information. Usually, that means danger is near. As usual the story is interesting. Secrets and lies are at the heart of the mystery and the biggest secret is whether we actually know the people we think we know.
Four purrs and one paw up.
This book is a delightful page turner with a food blogger perfecting her amateur detecting skills on a few murders plaguing Jefferson, Connecticut. You will find a well-written mystery that centers around Hope Early who seems to manage well her busy schedule running a successful blog, Hope at Home, and expanding to teaching blogging at the local library. She’s also remodeling her old farmhouse, navigating a romantic relationship with the local detective, and as circumstances have it she’s become interested in podcasting. She sure could use a few extra hours in the day or maybe an assistant. Devon Markham is a new resident in town with a popular podcast, Search for the Missing. Her main topic has been the twenty-year-old cold case of her own mother’s disappearance. Hope’s fascination turns serious when Devon is found murdered. In this page turner drama is compelling, slowly revealing details of the cold case and connections to the recent murder. Using a third-person narrative, readers are kept engaged with a writing style filled with descriptive language and entertaining dialogue. Don’t think you’ll be able to figure out this one before the surprise conclusion...I know I was not sure who did it! I was shocked!!fun to try! t. Food Blog Treats! Hope Early shares her thoughts (a delightful addition) and easy-to-follow and varied recipes perfect for any stay-at-home meal: Three-Cheese Lasagna, Rustic Apple Pie, One-Bowl Brownies, Sunshine Corn Muffins, Sugar Cookies, and Double-Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies!
With blogging becoming more and more popular with a younger audience and her food blog...Hope at Home....pulling larger numbers every day, Hope Early is asked by local library to teach a class on blogging. Cooking, blogging and amateur sleuthing as hobbies, Hope's days are busy. When an old friend who hosts a podcast focused on cold case crimes asks Hope for help, she's not sure she has time. But the cold case this friend is reviewing is her own mother's disappearance. Not long after agreeing to help, Hope's friend is found dead in a car wreck....accident or murder?
The Corpse Who Knew Too Much is a great read. The story line is based on current trends, using social media to help investigate a cold case committed long before any of this was available. A great story line, solid characters and lots of actions to keep reader's interest. Debra Sennefelder's Food Blogger series is a great addition to my TBR pile and one I'm sure to watch for the next volume.
This is the 4th installment in this series, but the first I have read. I was immediately drawn in by the main character and the topic of blogging, as that is something that has always been super interesting, but I haven’t read about ever in a cozy. I am fascinated by cold cases, so that also perked my interest as I was reading.
Hope is a like able character. I enjoy her relationship with Ethan, but also the addition of her family members. There were a couple points where I was a little overwhelmed with all the characters and keeping them straight. I would like to go back to the beginning and read the first three, just so I have a better understanding of the character baseline. I will say, I loved all the recipes and I might actually go back and make one.
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions in this review are my own.