Helpful Score: 1
This installment of the Cackleberry Club was okay. I loved the setting of winter with the Fire and Ice Festival and as always, what takes place in the restaurant wants me to have one of my own.
The mystery itself is pretty good. There are a lot of questions, suspects and motives running around. But there are a couple of subplots that make no sense whatsoever and seemed more like fillers.
The ending was sudden, short and poorly written. It was as if Childs handed the story over to a high schooler and said, "Hey, finish this for me, would ya? I got better things to do!" And the exclamation points! Seriously? Someone drives up in a car and it merits exciting punctuation?!!
I loved this series, but either Childs has too much on her plate writing several series at once, or she's bored and just writing to fullfill a contract obligation.
The mystery itself is pretty good. There are a lot of questions, suspects and motives running around. But there are a couple of subplots that make no sense whatsoever and seemed more like fillers.
The ending was sudden, short and poorly written. It was as if Childs handed the story over to a high schooler and said, "Hey, finish this for me, would ya? I got better things to do!" And the exclamation points! Seriously? Someone drives up in a car and it merits exciting punctuation?!!
I loved this series, but either Childs has too much on her plate writing several series at once, or she's bored and just writing to fullfill a contract obligation.
Helpful Score: 1
Suzanne, Petra and Toni are closing the Cackleberry Club café during a whiteout when a horrible accident occurs behind the café. The new bank manger is decapitated while riding a snowmobile. Once again, the ladies are thrust into sleuth mode. Actually, just Suzanne and Toni. Petra tries to keep herself busy in the kitchen and the Knitting nook. I really like that this series focuses on the friendship of the three main characters. I love that Suzanne and Sam have taken their relationship to another level. I wish Toni would let Junior go and get on with her life. Petra seems so content that I'm not sure what I would like for her. Perhaps true happiness without Alzheimer destroying her husband. The interaction of the townspeople is good and very believable. The café has great recipes (which they share!), a book corner and a knitting section. The afternoon tea is a story after my heart! What more could you ask for! 3.5 stars
Suzanne, Toni and Petra found a second life after losing their husbands. They opened the Cackleberry Club, a cafe featuring yummy egg dishes. But they never thought sleuthing would come to be the special of the day.
A KILLER HAS THE TOWN WALKING ON EGGSHELLS.
A loud crash is heard behind the cafe. Suzanne rushes out in a blizzard to see what caused the commotion. She finds the town's most hated baker beheaded. He was riding his snowmobile and ran through a wire staked in the snow. When some the cafe's best customers become prime suspects and the police investigation starts snowballing off course, the ladies know it is time to track down the killer.
Dollycas's Thoughts
In this 4th installment of the Cackleberry Club mayhem blows right in before the end of chapter 1 along with a nice snowstorm.Suzanne tries to keep her own head as she tries to put the killer on ice. It is like a wonderful toboggan ride racing downhill.
I love these ladies. They are so relate-able and if I lived in Kindred they would definitely be good friends of mine. Great food, a book nook and a crafty corner, what more could we ask for in the perfect meeting place. They are also the requisite quirky supporting characters needed to round out the town's residents. Add to that a Fire and Ice Festival, that includes a parade, ice sculpting, an ice fishing contest, a treasure hunt and a murderer on the loose. All the ingredients of a marvelous mystery.
The thing that stands out to me in this series is the friendship shared by Suzanne, Petra, and Toni. Each dealing with their own battles but they are they for each other day in and day out. Raising each others spirits, lending an ear, sharing their thoughts, all while running a restaurant and solving a murder.
Toni's hot and cold relationship with Junior brings some humor to the story. His latest invention will have you giggling, but had my husband thinking it might not be a bad idea. :) Boys and their toys!
I have enjoyed every book in this series! They are at their best when read in order. I read the first 3 one right after the other back in 2010 and I was so happy when Stake & Eggs was released this month. I have missed by visits to the Cackleberry Club. I hope Laura takes us on another adventure with these ladies very soon!
Stake & Eggs is a scrumptious who-dun-it and the recipes included are tasty too. You must try the Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancakes.
A KILLER HAS THE TOWN WALKING ON EGGSHELLS.
A loud crash is heard behind the cafe. Suzanne rushes out in a blizzard to see what caused the commotion. She finds the town's most hated baker beheaded. He was riding his snowmobile and ran through a wire staked in the snow. When some the cafe's best customers become prime suspects and the police investigation starts snowballing off course, the ladies know it is time to track down the killer.
Dollycas's Thoughts
In this 4th installment of the Cackleberry Club mayhem blows right in before the end of chapter 1 along with a nice snowstorm.Suzanne tries to keep her own head as she tries to put the killer on ice. It is like a wonderful toboggan ride racing downhill.
I love these ladies. They are so relate-able and if I lived in Kindred they would definitely be good friends of mine. Great food, a book nook and a crafty corner, what more could we ask for in the perfect meeting place. They are also the requisite quirky supporting characters needed to round out the town's residents. Add to that a Fire and Ice Festival, that includes a parade, ice sculpting, an ice fishing contest, a treasure hunt and a murderer on the loose. All the ingredients of a marvelous mystery.
The thing that stands out to me in this series is the friendship shared by Suzanne, Petra, and Toni. Each dealing with their own battles but they are they for each other day in and day out. Raising each others spirits, lending an ear, sharing their thoughts, all while running a restaurant and solving a murder.
Toni's hot and cold relationship with Junior brings some humor to the story. His latest invention will have you giggling, but had my husband thinking it might not be a bad idea. :) Boys and their toys!
I have enjoyed every book in this series! They are at their best when read in order. I read the first 3 one right after the other back in 2010 and I was so happy when Stake & Eggs was released this month. I have missed by visits to the Cackleberry Club. I hope Laura takes us on another adventure with these ladies very soon!
Stake & Eggs is a scrumptious who-dun-it and the recipes included are tasty too. You must try the Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancakes.
Bonnie A. (ladycholla) -
Very enjoyable entry to this series. Lots of fun and the ladies as usual are great friends. Romance of Sam and Suzanne continuing, crazy relationship of Toni and Junior on going and Petra as usual sees her husband in the nursing home regularly. Doogie as usual is at the forefront and the other crazies are all there. Childs has done another good one for all of us to enjoy.
Have you ever picked up a "new" book and realized by the second chapter (if not before!) that you've already read it? OK, so the second time through I find I am enjoying it in a different way than the first. Although I can't remember how it ends, each page usually brings an "oh, yeah I remember that" so it's more like reconnecting with old friends. It's well written, the characters are, for the most part, interesting and likeable. I still think it's a stretch to believe that a law enforcement officer, sheriff in this book, would discuss details of a crime/investigation with a civilian. Something common to most of the cozy mysteries.
another delightful installment in this series. Love the characters. Laura Childs is a favorite author.
First Line: Ice pellets blasted the windows of the Cackleberry Club.
It's whiteout conditions in Kindred, Minnesota, and everyone has headed for home. Now that the Cackleberry Club Café is cleaned up and ready for the next day's business, home is exactly where owner Suzanne Dietz and her two partners Toni and Petra are headed, too... until the sounds of a racing snowmobile and a crash make Suzanne race out the backdoor into the snow.
She finds bank president Ben Busacker's decapitated body thrown from his wrecked snowmobile-- and a wire strung tightly between two poles. The murder has occurred right in time for the Fire and Ice winter festival, and it chills Suzanne to the bone knowing that she may very well be serving ham and eggs to the murderer in her very own café. The problem is that Busacker was the most hated man in town, foreclosing on well-liked farmers and turning others down for loans. The local sheriff needs all the help he can get in narrowing down the list of suspects, and with everyone beating a path to Suzanne's door, she thinks she's going to be just the woman to pare down that list.
This fourth book was my introduction to this mystery series featuring three women in their forties who have banded together in business and in friendship after dealing with the loss of their husbands. Suzanne is the star of the show, and the mastermind behind the café, bookstore and yarn shop. Although everyone in town seems to come to her for help, she's not your usual "Mother Earth" type. If she feels that she-- or anyone else-- is being pushed around, she has no problem with getting in the guilty person's face and telling him what's what. She also has a tendency to shout a bit and share pieces of her mind with everyone when she's on an adrenaline rush-- something that brand-new beau Sam Hazelet can deal with.
Most of the humor in the book belongs to Suzanne's friend and business partner, Toni, who's tiny and opinionated and has an on-again-off-again relationship with Junior, a parolee who isn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Junior is a mechanic who loves get rich quick schemes, and his latest invention, the Car Cooker, is a hoot. (Especially if it comes with a cocktail-shaker attachment....)
I sometimes felt a bit out-of-the-loop with Suzanne, her friends, and all the various relationships and histories, so I think that this is a series that might best be started from the beginning. However, the story is well-told, with very plausible red herrings that can easily lead a reader astray, and it's filled with a cast of characters that genuinely care for each other and enjoy each other's company. There's action when it's least expected, and the humor can sneak up and make a person laugh out loud. Yes indeed, it would be very easy for me to become a regular at the Cackleberry Club Café.
It's whiteout conditions in Kindred, Minnesota, and everyone has headed for home. Now that the Cackleberry Club Café is cleaned up and ready for the next day's business, home is exactly where owner Suzanne Dietz and her two partners Toni and Petra are headed, too... until the sounds of a racing snowmobile and a crash make Suzanne race out the backdoor into the snow.
She finds bank president Ben Busacker's decapitated body thrown from his wrecked snowmobile-- and a wire strung tightly between two poles. The murder has occurred right in time for the Fire and Ice winter festival, and it chills Suzanne to the bone knowing that she may very well be serving ham and eggs to the murderer in her very own café. The problem is that Busacker was the most hated man in town, foreclosing on well-liked farmers and turning others down for loans. The local sheriff needs all the help he can get in narrowing down the list of suspects, and with everyone beating a path to Suzanne's door, she thinks she's going to be just the woman to pare down that list.
This fourth book was my introduction to this mystery series featuring three women in their forties who have banded together in business and in friendship after dealing with the loss of their husbands. Suzanne is the star of the show, and the mastermind behind the café, bookstore and yarn shop. Although everyone in town seems to come to her for help, she's not your usual "Mother Earth" type. If she feels that she-- or anyone else-- is being pushed around, she has no problem with getting in the guilty person's face and telling him what's what. She also has a tendency to shout a bit and share pieces of her mind with everyone when she's on an adrenaline rush-- something that brand-new beau Sam Hazelet can deal with.
Most of the humor in the book belongs to Suzanne's friend and business partner, Toni, who's tiny and opinionated and has an on-again-off-again relationship with Junior, a parolee who isn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Junior is a mechanic who loves get rich quick schemes, and his latest invention, the Car Cooker, is a hoot. (Especially if it comes with a cocktail-shaker attachment....)
I sometimes felt a bit out-of-the-loop with Suzanne, her friends, and all the various relationships and histories, so I think that this is a series that might best be started from the beginning. However, the story is well-told, with very plausible red herrings that can easily lead a reader astray, and it's filled with a cast of characters that genuinely care for each other and enjoy each other's company. There's action when it's least expected, and the humor can sneak up and make a person laugh out loud. Yes indeed, it would be very easy for me to become a regular at the Cackleberry Club Café.
Pamela C. (pj-s-bookcorner) reviewed Stake & Eggs (Cackleberry Club, Bk 4) on + 863 more book reviews
Another cozy read from Laura Childs in the Cackleberry Club mystery series. A snowmobile accident behind their establishment turns out to be murder and Suzanne soon finds herself right in the middle of the investigation. Always an enjoyable read from Childs.
