Treadmill
Books: Behind Chocolate Bars by Kathy Aarons
Best friends Michelle and Erika own adjoining
shops; Michelle crafts delectable chocolates while Erika runs a
bookstore. Together, they are Chocolates and Chapters. This time, the two
are working with the local Halloween festival where they will have a display of
their wares. Erika’s teen comic book group are helping with the haunted
house, and having a wonderful time preparing for the crowds who will be
expecting to be thrilled and chilled by ghosts, zombies, vampires, and such.
Things take a scarier turn for real when a corpse
turns up and evidence suggests that one of the teens might be involved.
This was my first foray into the Chocolate
Covered Mystery series, and I realized fairly quickly I probably should
have started with an earlier book. I had a little bit of trouble keeping
all the players straight—both Erika and Michelle have boyfriends, relatives,
and friends around—but since the bookstore had only carried the one title, I
persevered. The two friends do an awful lot of investigating while being
discouraged by the police, and for good reason.
Usually, I don’t mind this at all—I consider it a given that the amateur
sleuth is going to investigate and that is something one just accepts in the
genre—but this time I was more uneasy, for reasons I won’t go into because I
would consider it a spoiler. There’s also one of the incredibly mean characters
who exists to try to make the heroines’ lives miserable. This is also sort of a given, but I prefer it
when the nasty is more of a developed character instead of a handy baddie.
Otherwise, I thought the plot was well done, very
contemporary, and intriguing. Erika and
Michelle are very comfortable with one another and it has the feel of a genuine
friendship. I think Leo, Michelle’s
brother, is also probably an excellently developed character but coming in as I
did at more or less the end of a story arc with him I didn’t have the full
picture. He’s a rather atypical
character for such a series and I heartily applaud Aarons for his
inclusion. The cats made a late
appearance but were suitably adorable.
As a treadmill book, this was average though I
hasten to add that I think it might have been better if I had started with the
first book in the series instead of what appears to be the last (this one came
out in 2016 and I don’t see any others listed as coming out). At some point I
will go back and pick up the first two since this one is memorable. As many of
these as I read, that’s saying something.
Chocolate
Covered Mysteries
Death is Like a Box of Chocolates
Truffled to Death
Behind Chocolate Bars
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