Last week was ice cream and this week was fudge. Sounds like my last vacation. In any case, my local library was highlighting this book for its Michigan flavor: a murder mystery set in a Mackinac Island fudge shop.
That is, Allie McMurphy has just inherited a Victorian inn and attached fudge shop from her recently deceased grandfather when she opens a closet door to find one of the island's longtime denizens dead on the floor. Since her grandfather had an open and long-running feud with the dead man, and since he certainly didn't die of natural causes, she finds herself at the center of a murder investigation that threatens to derail everything she's worked for.
Okay, so, it's a bit over the top. Honestly, everything about All Fudged Up is over the top - I mean, the author has chosen the pen name of Nancy Coco, which caused my husband to groan audibly when he saw what I was reading. Also, the recipes - which appear to be somewhat randomly inserted throughout the book - are rather awkward. I would have preferred a recipe collection at the end, although I don't typically pick up a mystery in order to improve my cooking (or candy making). I struggled with the prose for the first 50 or so pages as well: these are not beautiful, flowing sentences with vivid descriptions and there is nothing subtle about the writing or word choice. Still, the mystery was well constructed and this was a quick, fun read without any emotional investment.
Nancy Coco may not be Agatha Christie, but I am already on the waiting list for the next book in the series, To Fudge or Not to Fudge. Happy eating...er, reading!
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