Debut
In Hattie Fox’s debut, Madeline is our amateur sleuth and prestigious French pastry chef who is unfortunately going through the loss of her grandfather. To help out her Grandma Ruth, Madeline has returned to their home of Solvang, California where her grandparents run a Dutch bakery in the Dutch themed town. Madeline took over the bakery while her grandfather was on the decline, allowing him to rest and her grandmother to spend time with him without worrying about the shop. But when he passed, Madeline couldn’t bear the thought of Grandma Ruth selling the place and finding a job elsewhere. Staying was a difficult decision, as she had made wonderful progress back in LA at a famous restaurant. Staying meant leaving that job. Her grandmother’s only caveat to Madeline taking over the bakery? Madeline would do it her way and make the French pastry she loves.
Redoing the bakery to reflect the new French aesthetic shakes up Solvang, and more than a few are skeptical about the idea of a morning pain au chocolate with their coffee. Winning over the traditional residents is proving to be a daunting task, which is only made worse when a new resident arrives and seems to make it her personal mission to make life miserable for Madeline and her bakery. To prove French pastry’s worth, and make a name for herself in town, Grandma Ruth convinces Madeline to participate in a local baking competition. Despite her own misgivings, Madeline enters and is rewarded by taking first place.
Her win is tainted by accusations of cheating being hurled at her, only for Grandma Ruth to escalate things with her protective nature by hurling pastries. The food fight only continues to grow until local police step in to put an end to it and organize the participants to help clean up the sweet mess. Everything seems to be settling down, until the instigator of the food fight is found dead behind Madeline’s bakery, with Grandma Ruth standing over the body. Terrified of her grandmother taking the blame for the murder, Madeline decides she has no choice but to try and figure things out for herself. The main problem is she has no sleuthing experience, no idea where to start, and the victim was generally disliked by everyone in town. Added to that, Madeline appears to have a secret admirer who leaves ominous cryptic notes and gifts for her. Luckily Detective Ashton takes the notes seriously, but they are not pleased with Madeline’s investigation.
I suggest Baking up a Murder for readers who are looking for a realistic amateur sleuth. Madeline stumbles a lot as she tries to get her answers, even being direct to a fault at times. She is driven by an intense need to save her grandmother, as it seems that the police are not looking beyond the evidence pointing at Grandma Ruth. Baking up a Murder is easy to read, and Hattie Fox establishes setting and characters effectively. I do hope that future books might be coming so we can see more of Madeline’s adventures and see how her new life in Solvang evolves. – Carla Schantz