Criminal Confections

Hayden has a very interesting job. She troubleshoots chocolate. She'll help a company test their products and talk to them about what would make it taste better. She can even taste the different beans used, the other ingredients and how they blend. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it, right?

Kensington Books and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published February 3rd, so make a note to pick it up then.

Hayden is very direct and outspoken. She doesn't like big events and lots of people. But when your current employer is hosting a major chocolate festival and bringing out a new line of chocolate, you go where you are requested. What you don't expect is for the chocolate chef to drop dead during the event...

When they tell Hayden it was from an overdose, she knows the chef heart attack wasn't normal. What she doesn't know was what hit her. Was it from the highly intense chocolate? Was it something in that green drink she'd shared with Hayden? Hayden only had a swallow from hers.

This is a cozy mystery that is filled with chocolate facts. They eat everything from breakfast to dinner with chocolate. Reading it almost made me sick. But here's the real bad news: it also made me buy a box of chocolates. After spending so much time in the chocolate world in fiction, I had to have some in my real world!

It takes Hayden to get to the bottom of the mystery and she almost dies in chocolate before she's done. If you like chocolate or cozy mysteries, you'll enjoy this one.

Hayden Mundy Moore is a chocolate expert who searches the world for the best cacao beans to make the best chocolate. When she attends a special event at the Lamaitre resort in San Francisco and one of the employees turns up dead, Hayden needs to find out how and why. Fun new mystery series with chocolate!

Hayden takes her chocolate seriously. She’s traveled the world over to find the best of the best. But she puts on her detective’s cap when a colleague dies at a chocolate themed resort. The official cause of death is listed as a heart attack brought on by ingesting a secret ingredient in one of the resorts chocolate delicacies. Hayden doesn’t believe it and travels to the resort where she suffers through chocolate facials, scrubs and massages. Hey, it’s a tough job but someone’s gotta do it

Murder and chocolate? Sounds good to me! Criminal Confections was a deliciously fun mystery set at a chocolate retreat. Hayden is known as the chocolate whisperer. Chocolate is her passion and expertise. She travels all over the world working as a consultant to chocolatiers, finding problems with their recipes or helping them develop new ones, or adapt old ones for new markets. Her latest contract is with the company hosting the retreat, so Hayden is expecting a few days of chocolate tasting, panels, and spa treatments. Murder is the last thing on her mind, but then her friend Adrienne winds up dead while working on new caffeinated truffles.

I adored Criminal Confections from the beginning. Hayden is such an upbeat and great narrator. Her passion for chocolate and life really shines through. She never stays in one place for more than a couple months, and literally carries the entirety of her belongings in a carry-on bag. She's also one of those people who meet no strangers, so it's easy for her to start investigating Adrienne's murder after it's deemed an overdose. Hayden winds up uncovering more than just a murderer. She learns of affairs and company secrets! There always some new, juicy bit of gossip cropping up to confuse the evidence.

While the mystery was really fun, I did have to roll my eyes a bit at the big confrontation near the end. Of course, Hayden tries to lure out the killer by offering up something she thinks they want. However, someone unexpected shows up and she can't figure out why they're there. Um, hello! They're who you were trying to fish out! They're the murderer! I felt like those people who yell when someone goes into the basement in a horror movie. Like, don't go into the spa room with the killer!!!

Criminal Confections was just a delight to read. The mystery was fun, and I did figure out the murderer. I couldn't pinpoint why they killed Adrienne, because more secrets! And I feel like I learned a lot about chocolate! I'm super picky when it comes to sweets, but a lot of the desserts Hayden described, I want to try! She also mentions one of my favorite brands: Kinder!

Hayden helps chocolatiers enhance their reputation and expertise in the specialist market. She's invited to a weekend retreat for one chocolate company who have secretly employed her to investigate one of their new lines. She is due to submit a report but is enjoying everything the retreat has to offer whilst she is there. When one of the girls she's befriended at the company dies in suspicious circumstances she begins to wonder how safe she is. When a rival chocolate maker is also found dead she looks at each person she's been in contact with - wondering whether it could be them!

It was a lovely easy read - set in a wonderful world of chocolate!

Many thanks to Kensington Books and Net Galley for a copy of this book.

This book is a combination of chick lit and a whodunnit. It reminded me of the Murder She Wrote TV series and Agatha Raisin's books, as well as being a lighter version of an Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel. I was relieved that it wasn't a 'happily ever after' and 'girl gets boy' ending, although the book came to a satisfying conclusion. The ending suggests that there will be another book in the series to follow this one.
I'm not sure how realistic the story is in terms of the criminal investigation. I was surprised that the police didn't conduct a full investigation, even if they suspected the first death was accidental poisoning. And they also weren't interested when a second supposedly accidental death occurred.
However, it's an enjoyable story and on the whole well written, although I felt in places stricter editing would have cut out some unnecessary waffle.

Go for the chocolate. Stay for the murders. Entertaining and engaging.