I loved everything about this book, but as I was closing in on the last few pages I thought to myself, "There is no way she can wrap the book up in so few pages!" Culver did, but I wasn't happy with the abrupt ending. It felt like she got bored with the idea of the book and just stopped writing. All that said I still can't wait to pick up Never Say Pie, her next addition to the Pie Shop Mysteries. Just okay. There is a death at a retirement home, and Hanna's grandmother is suspected of murdering a rival bridge player (Mary), who was very rich. So Hanna sets about finding the killer so her grannie won't be sent to jail. It turns out Mary was hated by everyone, including her family (of which we only get to meet a couple - Blake, her grandson, and granddaughter Melissa, who is in one whole scene in the entire book). Hanna has moved back from the Big City and of course, her high school crush has also moved back from wherever and is now chief of police. I guess he was supposed to be the love interest, but he acted more like she was a cousin he didn't like until the last couple of chapters (you know, the one you have to talk to but really don't want to spend any time with). In fact, it seemed he was only spending time with her because he thought SHE might be involved in the murder somehow, since it seems the woman died because of a medication reaction to the cranberries in her pie. Hanna has a pie shop, and everywhere she goes she brings a pie with her - not any pie, but different pies each time. A lot of pies. She even makes pies for lunch (asparagus, spinach, etc.). I was beginning to wonder if she ate anything else. The author also doesn't describe Hanna (or anyone else) very well, and the only impression I came away with was that she had long brown hair and was probably slender. Nothing else. That should tell you how well she fleshed out the characters.There also were too many unanswered questions: What exactly happened on prom night? Why was the "gang from a rival school" trying to kill her, so that Sam (the sheriff) had to protect her? (As far as I know, gangs from rival schools don't go around trying to kill people on prom night unless you live in a really bad place, and nothing much ever happened in this town). And where was this rival school? This town is so small only two sweet shops are in it (hers and a cupcakery), and has a police force they want to disband. So why do they have two high schools? A town that small would have only one. Why is Mary's will being contested? We are given the impression that the family gets everything, then Sam tells her that the will is being contested, but we never find out why. Who gets all the money? Who is contesting the will? So we're supposed to believe Mary's family are suspects without giving any reason why. Especially since Hanna's friend Kate (who was minding the pie shop) tells her that Mary's family members came to the shop for pie to celebrate after reading the will. Excuse me? If they're contesting the will, why are they celebrating? And who 'celebrates' the reading of a will by going out and eating pie? I can see it: "Gee, that was great!" "Yeah, I didn't get everything I wanted, but, you know what, I feel like a piece of pie. Let's go celebrate! We'll buy every pie in the place!" Who is Lurlene the cupcake lady? She appears to be some kind of a tart (no pun intended). She dresses like one and acts like one, appears in a couple of scenes being downright nasty to Hanna and accuses her of murder, but we never find out why she says these things or anything else about her.Also, no one seems to resent the fact that she's trying to pin the murder on anyone else but her grannie. No one seems to mind her poking around asking questions, either, except Sam, who keeps telling her to stop it, but that's about it. There's no confrontations between them, just him telling her to let him do the investigating; but HE doesn't want to investigate, because he's already decided her grannie is guilty. What a man.In my opinion, the characters were boring and I really didn't care about any of them. I sure hope the next book is better than this one.
Do You like book A Good Day To Pie (2011)?
Long on sugar, short on substance. Put me in the mood to eat pie, though.
—rusty
I thought this was a great start to a new culinary cozy series.
—sha
