Dollycas's Thoughts
I am always excited when I get to visit the ladies at the Cackleberry Club Café. It's Christmastime and in addition to the café being all decked out they are planning a Christmas Tea and helping the Kindred Players behind the scenes for their upcoming production of A Christmas Carol. Sadly they have to add a funeral luncheon to their busy schedule when the Ghost Of Christmas Past kills Scrooge during rehearsal â and they weren't acting.
Scrooge, aka Attorney Allen Sharpe, is dead, stabbed while onstage with people watching. All they saw was a ghost, nothing to help police identify the person, but Suzanne gave chase, was threatened with a knife and the killer got away. Solving the crime isn't going to be easy, the victim had wronged a lot of people. No matter how hard they try or how many times they are warned off Suzanne, Petra, and Toni find themselves egg-xactly where they shouldn't be. Right in the middle of another murder investigation and skating on thin ice.
What I love most about this series is that the characters are genuine. You could easily walk into a café in Minnesota and find friends like Suzanne, Toni, and Petra bustling around, serving up delicious food, shelving new titles in the book nook or teaching a class in the craft area. They take part in community events. The watch out for each other and the people important in their lives. Unlike normal people, they do occasionally get wrapped up in a murder, but their hearts are always in the right place.
This time I was totally gobsmacked when the killer was revealed. Not on my radar, not in my wildest dreams. Twists galore sent me in a whole different direction. I did have to skip a few pages due to a trigger situation, so maybe I missed something there, but I had really zeroed in on one person. With plenty of cozy-ish action and suspense, it was fun to trail along as the characters and I both learned who the killer was at the exact same time.
Kindred, Minnesota is a happening place and I have enjoyed every visit. The entire series is egg-cellent. There are big future plans in the works so I am really excited about returning again next year!!
I am always excited when I get to visit the ladies at the Cackleberry Club Café. It's Christmastime and in addition to the café being all decked out they are planning a Christmas Tea and helping the Kindred Players behind the scenes for their upcoming production of A Christmas Carol. Sadly they have to add a funeral luncheon to their busy schedule when the Ghost Of Christmas Past kills Scrooge during rehearsal â and they weren't acting.
Scrooge, aka Attorney Allen Sharpe, is dead, stabbed while onstage with people watching. All they saw was a ghost, nothing to help police identify the person, but Suzanne gave chase, was threatened with a knife and the killer got away. Solving the crime isn't going to be easy, the victim had wronged a lot of people. No matter how hard they try or how many times they are warned off Suzanne, Petra, and Toni find themselves egg-xactly where they shouldn't be. Right in the middle of another murder investigation and skating on thin ice.
What I love most about this series is that the characters are genuine. You could easily walk into a café in Minnesota and find friends like Suzanne, Toni, and Petra bustling around, serving up delicious food, shelving new titles in the book nook or teaching a class in the craft area. They take part in community events. The watch out for each other and the people important in their lives. Unlike normal people, they do occasionally get wrapped up in a murder, but their hearts are always in the right place.
This time I was totally gobsmacked when the killer was revealed. Not on my radar, not in my wildest dreams. Twists galore sent me in a whole different direction. I did have to skip a few pages due to a trigger situation, so maybe I missed something there, but I had really zeroed in on one person. With plenty of cozy-ish action and suspense, it was fun to trail along as the characters and I both learned who the killer was at the exact same time.
Kindred, Minnesota is a happening place and I have enjoyed every visit. The entire series is egg-cellent. There are big future plans in the works so I am really excited about returning again next year!!
Bonnie A. (ladycholla) -
Love this book in this series. As usual Laura Childs does a great job and tells a wonderful story.
Pamela C. (pj-s-bookcorner) reviewed Eggs on Ice (Cackleberry Club, Bk 8) on + 860 more book reviews
An enjoyable cozy from Laura Childs. Suzanne, owner of Cackleberry Club café, gets involved in a murder while volunteering as stage hand for the town's Christmas play. While investigating a host of suspects, a second murder occurs. But will her investigation endanger her life?
Eggs on Ice contains good writing along with gentle pacing. Eggs on Ice is a cozy mystery that is best not read as a standalone. Details that readers need are not included in the eighth A Cackleberry Club Mystery (some information is imparted as the book progresses). I recommend beginning with Eggs in Purgatory. The Cackleberry Club is a unique restaurant with a Book Nook and the Knitting Nest. It sounds like my type of café. We get wonderful descriptions of the unique yarns they carry. I have never heard of the some of the yard blends Petra works with and has ordered for the shop (though, I am eager to find and create objects with them). The main characters are likeable and relatable. The three women are best friends despite their diverse personalities. Suzanne is the main voice of the story. She is engaged to Dr. Sam Hazelet and they have a warm, loving relationship. Toni is unique with her beliefs and her husband. There are a variety of off-beat characters in the story with Junior Garrett, Toni's wacky sort-of husband, being the quirkiest. He constantly finds himself in trouble thanks to his bad choices and lack of intelligence. The murder occurs in the first chapter of the book. We then follow Suzanne as she does her daily activities (working, spending time with friends and her fiancé) and she asks questions of interested parties she encounters. Suzanne along with Toni do break into one interested parties' home to look for clues. There is little action in the book until the end. I like Suzanne's style of questioning. She is not intrusive or demanding which I appreciate. I kept hoping Suzanne would put together the clues and identify the killer (whom I identified before the body left the theater). It was interesting how Suzanne subdued the killer, but it seemed unrealistic (the item has a safety feature that prevents it from being used in that manner). The ending was abrupt and felt incomplete. It needed another chapter to wrap up the whodunit satisfactorily (answer questions about the crime and the killer's reasoning) and give readers a happy ending (see them celebrating Christmas would have been nice). I did not feel that Eggs on Ice is on the same level as the authors other works (A Tea Shop Mystery series and A Scrapbooking Mystery series). There are details missing from the story such as the main characters last names (Toni and Petra) and I am curious what state Kindred is in. There are recipes at the end for the items served in The Cackleberry Club. I wish there had been instruction for how to make the quilted tote mentioned in the book by Petra. Eggs on Ice is a cute and humorous cozy mystery set is a charming small town filled with off-beat individuals.
