Today, I’ll be discussing Meet Your Baker, the first book in the series Bakeshop Mystery Series by Ellie Alexander is the next book that I have read to continue my posts about the most popular and recommended mystery series.
Juliet Montague Capshaw (who goes by “Jules”) is returning to her hometown of Ashland, Oregon, a quaint town most known for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which brings in plenty of academics and acting professionals alike as well as a slew of tourists. Coming off of a rough breakup from her husband of ten years, Jules wants to spend a bit of time recovering and deciding on a new direction for her life, as continuing her profession as a dessert baker on cruise ships feels less attractive without her partner of ten years.
While a lot has stayed the same in the years Jules has been gone from Ashland, many things have also changed. Though there is still a place for her in her family’s bake shop, Torte, and she still knows a significant number of the locals who grew up in town, she is less familiar with many of the newer faces who have arrived in the last decade, including newcomer Nancy Hudson. Nancy is the newest board member of the festival, as well as a very significant financial backer, plus is dating a local who has been working for years to buy up as much of the local businesses as possible, including Torte.
No one much likes Nancy… which, needless to say, makes it much harder to pin down just one suspect when she turns up dead in Torte, having been bludgeoned, apparently by one of Jules own jam jars. Jules feels that it’s in both her own and her family’s best interest to solve the case as quickly as possible – though it’s a nice plus that this gives her time to spend with her former highschool boyfriend, now a deputy also investigating the crime.
Ashland is a relatively grounded setting, with relatively few over-the-top or “wacky residents. The characters are still interesting, but few are as exaggerated as the genre often uses for supporting cast.
Another aspect of the book that I really appreciated was that the murder was relatively “front-and-center”, occurring in the first few chapters of the novel. A lot of modern Cozies have a tendency to sort of slowly move toward the crime, sometimes taking up to half the novel on preliminaries.
All told, I can recommend Meet Your Baker to any Cozy fan who likes relatively grounded settings, those who are interested in a murder starting up relatively quickly in the book, or anyone who has a love of detailed descriptions of scrumptious-sounding baked goods.
As a side note, Ellie Alexander has also written under the name Kate Dyer-Seeley.
If you are interested in reading some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on the site.
PS: For anyone who is a bit of a chef themselves, it’s worth noting that the book does include a number of delicious-sounding recipes at the end!
Ellen says
Just discovered this series and am thoroughly enjoying it. Love all the characters and the food! Kind of hope The author puts out a book of recipes.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Ellen, I’ve seen recipe books like that put out – they certainly seem like a good idea, even if they are sometimes just a compilation of the recipes already given in a series!
Teresa Springer says
I agree with your observations on this series. I absolutely love how the characters are written and the growth that the author has allowed among their interpersonal relationships. I think the books are well written. Thanks for spotlighting the series.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Teresa, growth is always a great thing to see in characters for a series running this long!
Marilyn Sliva says
Love this series & have read all the Kate Dyer-Seeley as well. Wonderful reading.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Marilyn, I’m glad to hear from readers enjoying this series!
Susy S says
I love this series. It has taken a whole for her personal situation to get settled, but I do love her, her family and the whole Torte crew. Her buddy Lance is always a kick as well. I always wait impatiently for the next book in the series.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Susy, I’m sure you’re not the only one waiting eagerly!
Elaine Behrendt says
Have read this entire series and loved it. Living near Ashland I can visualize the town in the books. Fun Stuff!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Elaine, it must be nice to be familiar with the setting of a Cozy like this!
robin in oregon says
I love, love this series. Have them all and reread them. Her last one came out in Dec. and the next MOCHA,SHE WROTE is due out in June. The recipes are great and the descriptions of other food stuffs that they serve at the bakery sound delicious. I really enjoy all the characters and stories involved. Her other series, dealing with breweries set in Leavenworth Wa. , is also very good. Love those microbreweries! She seems to have stopped writing her series under her Kate Dyer-Seeley name which is unfortunate. All of her series take place up here in the great Pacific Northwest, a wonderful part of the country (not that I’m biased living in Oregon!) All four of her series are fun and cozy.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Robin, I’ll have to check out that series as well! It certainly does seem like a wonderful part of the country – very scenic!
Greenway says
Yup, hard to beat the Cascades for scenery– if only the volcanoes could be de-fused! (And a colossal water system netted over them to prevent fires). Mary Daheim’s two series (Bed & Breakfast, and Alpine) are set in Washington State. One of the more recent, THE WURST IS YET TO COME, is set in Leavenworth, the mountain town that did everything to make it (tourist pseudo-) Bavarian, but forgot to change the name from a double of the Kansas town most known for “Club Fed”, to “Bavaria”, or Bad Schwansteukker, or something. An earlier snowbound novel had cousins Judith and Renie (the Mouse and Aunt Sister of the Emerald Empire) at an executive infested ski lodge in SNOW PLACE TO DIE. Gotta love ’em!
Rob J says
I would like to read this new entry by Ellie Alexander. She writes a great Brewery series centered in Washington State. I like that series and am waiting for the newest to come out. So I’ll try this one. Sounds interesting.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Rob, I’ll have to check that series out as well some time!