Bernie and Libby Simmons are back in the 12th novel of the popular culinary mystery series, A Catered Tea Party, by Isis Crawford.

Bernie and Libby Simmons have been hired to cater a tea party at the opening of a play at a venue created by Ludvoc Zalinsky, a so-called billionaire who is in charge of the play and party afterward. Zalinsky is terrible to work with and has alienated everyone near him, including the cast and crew of the play. When Zalinsky is found murdered at the end of opening night. Since the prime suspect is Casper, a friend of Bernie and Libby, they investigate with the hope of finding the real murderer.

Just like the previous novels, this one is fun. Bernie and Libby are not your run-of-the-mill protagonists – actually they are old ladies – and they tend to be fairly humorous and likeable. Crawford does an excellent job of developing them as characters who seem like real people. She also does a good job of developing the sub-characters so readers are very familiar. Crawford’s writing style is very easy to follow. She is a veteran writer and knows how to make the story flow while building some suspense and adding a surprise ending.

All told, this novel is just as fun as the previous ones in the series. It is a true culinary cozy so it’s filled with plenty of food (including good recipes for what the ladies serve at the tea party), as well as an absence of blatant sex, profanity, and violence. This one is highly recommended as a light and enjoyable read.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

This is the 12th book in this series and only the second one that I have read. I think I need to go back to the beginning and start as there were issues in this book that I was not sure about and were probably a continuation of a previous storyline. That being said, I did like the story.

Bernie and Libby have been hired to cater a local theater production of Alice in Wonderland by a wealthy man who wants to feature a two million dollar tea pot in the production. Their business of "A Little Taste of Heaven" has a very good reputation and they are worried after this event, it may be tarnished. As well their father, Sean, a retired police officer who often helps them solve mysteries is seeing a younger woman (Michelle) who not only is romantically interested in their father, but she is opening a competitive bakery and is trying to wangle information and recipes from the sister's shop. Libby and Bernie do not like this woman at all. Libby does not hide her feelings, while Bernie does as she does not want to send her father further into Michelle's clutches.

Meanwhile the wealthy entrepreneur ends up dead before opening night is finished and Bernie and Libby's friend is arrested for the crime. They offer to help and the sleuthing begins. They do not try to hide anything they are doing at all, they are very blunt and I can not imagine why they do not get themselves into major trouble. There are a lot of suspects as Ludvoc is not very well liked and appears to owe everyone money. Enter the Russian family, full of cousins, actors, business owners and liars and Bernie and Libby are having a harder time to solve this one than usual. With the help of their boyfriends and their father, they finally figure it out. The culprit was not someone I had on my radar at all. An interesting story, if a bit convoluted. I am not sure if I like the characters of Libby and Bernie. They seem to argue a lot, tend to be a bit obnoxious and short tempered. Maybe it was just this book, I will have to see when I read a couple more.