Fondue or Die: A Cheese Shop Mystery (5)
“Moss’ fans will enjoy this story, and no doubt be anticipating the next in the Cheese Shop Mystery series.”
Willa Bauer owns Curds and Whey, the local cheese shop in Yarrow Glen. As the day opens, she and her team are preparing for the annual Labor Day weekend celebration, “Dairy Days.”
One of the weekend's highlights is the Miss Dairy pageant, where the prettiest and most talented young lady will be selected and receive a $15,000 scholarship to go toward her college education. Excitement abounds.
Then disaster hits! When Willa and Mrs. Schultz enter the local museum in search of props, they find Nadine—the pageant director—dead under a toppled shelving unit! Is it an accident or murder?
Nadine was not popular. She bullied the pageant contenders, she bullied the pageant moms, and she bullied anyone who got in her way.
Chief Womack of the host town, Lockwood, is not ready to call it one way or the other, but Willa is clear—it’s murder. Willa and her collaborators—Team Cheese (employees Archie, Baz, and Mrs. Schultz)—frequently find themselves investigating murders, even if they don’t want to. And the investigation begins with contenders in opposite corners.
To her shock, Willa realizes that Chief Womack has set his eyes on Mrs. Schultz as a possible candidate for the murderer if, indeed, this is a murder. Willa will have none of this, and she gathers her Team Cheese for help, and they are more than willing to investigate the murder.
It doesn’t take long for multiple suspects to surface. Fiona, chief judge for the pageant, is about to be sacked by Nadine. MaryAnn, Nadine’s younger cousin, immediately takes over the director role upon learning about Nadine’s untimely death. Tyrell, director of the entire dairy event, is not liked by Nadine and is frequently bullied by her demands. Grace Kelp, a local reporter, believes pageants are antiquated and works toward destroying “Miss Dairy.” Barbie and Lynette are both pageant moms, and each has her own reasons for bribing Nadine regarding their daughter’s status. A substantial group of candidates, indeed, but are their motives strong enough to result in murder?
As Willa and Team Cheese investigate these candidates, Willa soon learns that Chief Womack has a secret of his own. Fifteen years ago, his wife disappeared, and no one has seen her since. Could Nadine have known something about this event, and would that give Chief Womack a motive to commit murder?
As the story progresses, Moss throws a fly into the ointment when she introduces an event that occurred 15 years earlier. Lynette’s daughter, Tabitha, was kidnapped and held for nine hours before being rescued by Chief Womack. Did the chief have more to do with the kidnapping, and is this another reason to suspect him in Nadine’s death?
A good cozy mystery does not move forward without some romance involving the Main Character; in this instance, that is Willa. In a previous investigation, she stuck her nose into an investigation, and the relationship with local Detective Heath went cold. Here, Moss takes steps to reunite the two.
Moss has created many well-developed characters, each suitable for investigation by Team Cheese, and she keeps the reader guessing. As the reader follows the investigation, the clues are dropped, but it is not until the end of the story that the problem is resolved.
Moss designs the final conflict differently from other cozies. Instead of Willa meeting the murderer alone, there is a group conflict, and the scene is well-drawn and full of tension.
Moss’ fans will enjoy this story, and no doubt be anticipating the next in the Cheese Shop Mystery series.