A Sheetcake Named Desire
Piece of Cake # 1
Jacklyn Brady

Berkley Prime Crime
August 2011/ ISBN 978-0-425-24274-2
Mystery / Cozy
Amazon

Reviewed by Laura Hinds

In this first book in the new “A Piece of Cake Mystery” series, we meet Rita Lucero, who has taken time off from her job to track down her soon to be ex-husband, Philippe, and get him to sign the divorce papers that he has made an effort to avoid for two years. Unfortunately, after arriving at his New Orleans bakeshop, Zydeco Cakes, Philippe is dead when Rita finds him. A murderer cut short his life.

There has been a campaign to sabotage Zydeco Cakes and Philippe has been at odds with one of his friends and staff members, a man who goes by the nickname Ox. While Rita doesn’t want to believe Ox could have killed his best friend, all signs point towards him as the culprit. Since the NOPD doesn’t seem to be having much luck turning up leads, Rita is determined to investigate the sabotage at the shop and hope that it puts her on the trail of the killer. Not only for her own peace of mind, but for Philippe’ mother, the elderly Miss Frankie, who insists that she needs Rita to say in town and to run the bakery while finding the truth about everything going on there.

I really enjoyed the detail that Brady shares with readers about the atmosphere of New Orleans, while at the same time skillfully guiding us to a connection with the main characters. I love Rita for her courage in the face of adversity, for her ability to see beneath the surface veneer of the face others put on for the world. Her instincts are good, and she is human enough that every now and then a nice margarita (or four), hits the spot. At the back of the book are some delicious recipes for desserts and for Dizzy Duke’s Jambalaya that sounds fantastic.

This is a well-thought out, character driven mystery. The plot is clever, and it left me guessing who the killer was until the end. I can tell that Rita is a character with a great deal of depth and I love her relationship with Miss Frankie, as well as the possibly budding relationship with Detective Liam Sullivan. I recommend this mystery to cozy readers, foodies who love a mystery, and readers who like only a modicum of violence in their books. It is appropriate for all ages from teens on up, but will appeal particularly to fans of Laura Childs’ Tea Shop mysteries, Jenn Mckinlay’s Cupcake Bakery mysteries, and other culinary themed cozies.

Reviews of other titles in this series

A Sheetcake Named Desire #1
Cake on a Hot Tin Roof #2
Arsenic and Old Cake #3
The Cakes of Wrath #4
Rebel Without a Cake #5
The Cakes of Monte Cristo #6