133) Bran New Death by Victoria Hamilton

The Blurb :

Expert muffin baker Merry Wynter is finally ready to turn her passion into a career. But when a dead body is found on her property, she’s more worried about cooking up an alibi…

Merry is making a fresh start in small-town Autumn Vale, New York, in the mansion she’s inherited from her late uncle, Melvin. The house is run-down and someone has been digging giant holes on the grounds, but with its restaurant-quality kitchen, the place has potential for her new baking business. She even has her first client—the local retirement home.

Unfortunately, Merry soon finds that quite a few townsfolk didn’t like Uncle Mel, and she has inherited their enmity as well as his home. Local baker Binny Turner and her crazy brother, Tom, blame Melvin for their father’s death, and Tom may be the one vandalizing her land. But when Tom turns up dead in one of the holes in her yard, Merry needs to prove she had nothing to do with his death—or her new muffin-making career may crumble before it starts...

My Thoughts :

I came across this cozy mystery on Netgalley a couple of weeks ago and decided to give it a try.  I really like cozy mysteries and I am always on the look out for new ones to add to my ever growing list of must buys.  This debut in a series had something to do with muffins so I could only imagine it being yummy.  I decided to give it a go and can say I am really pleased I did.

Merry was an interesting character right from the start.  She has had so many life experiences and it is nice to see her just taking off and doing something different.  She is strong, clever and been through a lot.  I could sympathize with her and I could also understand why she could just drop everything and go off to Autumn Vale.  I think all of us want to do that at some point in our lives.

So as things progressed I liked Merry even more.  I couldn't really see the point in her friend being there but she was funny enough and did offer some support.  It was actually hard sometimes keeping up with all the characters in Autumn Vale but it wasn't too much of a problem as the mystery continued and by the end I felt like I was also living in this quaint and quirky town.

The plot was good and kept me interested.  There were lots of ways the mystery could have unfolded and it was nice to be kept guessing.  The whole concept was a little rough around the ends with me and obviously Merry not really knowing what was really going to happen with her castle.  However the uncertainty and the lack of closure on this subject will have me reaching for the second book when it comes out.

All in all a great debut in the Merry Muffin Mystery series.  I have now seen that the author also has another mystery series out and I am going to add the first one to my wishlist.  However I am very interested in seeing what happens next to Merry, the castle and the rest of Autumn Vale.  A great start and a definite must read for cozy lovers.

 

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