Monday, September 21, 2020

Review Tour + #Giveaway: The Murderous Macaron by Ana T. Drew @GoddessFish



The Murderous Macaron
by Ana T. Drew
GENRE: Cozy Mystery


BLURB:

Julie has her freedom, a dream job as a pastry chef, and a corpse growing cold on her floor...


Welcome to Beldoc, a small town in the heart of Provence, imbued with lavender and fresh baked bread! You can idle around, or you can puzzle out a murder mystery.


When a man dies on her watch in her pâtisserie, newly divorced chef Julie Cavallo is dismayed. It isn’t that she’s a suspect. The local gendarmerie captain signs off the death as a natural event. A heart attack. But for a reason she won’t discuss, Julie suspects Maurice Sauve was poisoned. What’s a girl to do? She’ll ignore the risk and seek justice for Maurice on her own!


Well, not quite on her own. Julie’s eccentric grandmother, her snarky sister and her geeky sous chef are keen to help. The team’s amateurism is a challenge. But there’s also the pesky matter of no evidence, no clues, and soon, no body. The murder—if it was a murder—was planned and executed flawlessly.


Can a small-town baker solve the perfect crime?


"The Murderous Macaron" is a twisty whodunnit mystery perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich, Alexander McCall Smith, Jana DeLeon and Lilian Jackson Braun.


Excerpt:


I sit down across a round table from the gendarme, Capitaine Adinian, and begin my sad tale of yesterday’s macaron-making workshop that didn’t go as planned.

He listens, barely taking any notes.

When I get to the part where I asked my students to mix the ingredients I’d prepared for them, Capitaine Adinian leans forward. “Who prepared and laid out the ingredients?”

I did.”

When?”

Shortly before the class began.”

Did you leave the shop, even for a brief time, after you had everything ready for the class?” he asks.

No.”

He scribbles something in his little notebook. “Please continue.”

Most participants struggled to get their batter to stiffen,” I say. “Some gave up, claiming it was impossible without an electric mixer.”

Did Maurice Sauve give up?”

Quite the contrary. He whisked unrelentingly, switching hands but never pausing. He was the first to complete the task.”

Capitaine Adinian writes that down.

I gave him one of these.” I show Adinian the remaining badges that Flo had made for the workshop.

Great Baking Potential,” he reads aloud.

Then I went around with his bowl and had everyone admire the perfect consistency of the batter.”

Did anything stand out or seem unusual at that point?”

I gaze up at the ceiling, picturing the scene of me praising Maurice Sauve’s firm, satiny batter, students giving him their thumbs-up, and him smiling, visibly stoked. But he isn’t just smiling, he’s also… Panic squeezing my throat, I zero in on his face. He’s panting.

Oh. My. God.

I clap my hand over my mouth. “What if he’d whisked too hard? What if that exertion caused his heart attack?”

An intense workout, especially at freezing temperatures, can trigger a heart attack,” Adinian says.

He whisked intensely.”

Madame Cavallo, I’ve never heard of anyone whisking themselves to an early grave.”


My Review:

Julie has just went through a rather quick divorce. After her divorce she decides to move back to her hometown. Julie opened up her own bakery shop. Julie loves to cook and is a chef. After opening her little bakery shop she decides to teach a class on how to make Macarons.

On the first day of her class one of her students falls over dead. The local police rights the guys death off as a heart attack. After having a vision Julie becomes to believe that the man did not have a heart attack but instead may have been poisoned.

Julie’s sister and grandmother encourages her to look into the guys death. They believe that it will be very therapeutic for Julie with her recent and quick divorce. Julie is a wonderful person as she takes it all in stride although she is looking into the man’s death because she believes the man was murdered.

The Murderous Macaron was a fun sweet little murder mystery. It kept me guessing from beginning to end. It started out with a bang at the very beginning with a guy dead on the floor of Julie’s bakery shop. Julie had a list suspects who may or may not have had a reason to kill the guy.

The Murderous Macaron had the same feel to it as Murder She Wrote. I pictured the houses in the town of Beldoc with soft light colors and white picket fences with little old ladies peeking out the windows. A usually quite, quaint little town where everyone knows each other and gets along very well.

Although Julie tied up this little murder mystery nicely something tells me that there are going to be more murders and mystery for her to solve. I can’t wait to see what mystery she finds herself into next. While The Murderous Macaron was tied up nicely there were still questions about Julie and her past that I hope to learn more of in future books.


I would recommend The Murderous Macaron to anyone looking for a cozy little murder mystery. One click your copy of The Murderous Macaron today!




AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Ana T. Drew is the evil mastermind behind the recent series of murders in the fictional French town of Beldoc. When she is not writing cozy mysteries or doing mom-and-wife things, she can be found watching “The Rookie” to help her get over “Castle”. She lives in Paris but her heart is in Provence.

>>> Visit ana-drew.com for a free cookbook and a game!



Giveaway:

$20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC




Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.


4 comments:

Victoria Alexander said...

I've enjoyed following the tour for The Murderous Macaron and I'm looking forward to checking it out!

James Robert said...

Good morning and thank you for the book description and giveaway. 

Ana T. Drew said...

What a lovely review! Thank you!

Danielle merkle said...

Sounds interesting, thanks for sharing!