Published October 10, 2023

Sugar Plum Poisoned by Jenn McKinlay

Sugar Plum Poisoned by Jenn McKinlaySugar Plum Poisoned by Jenn McKinlay
Series: Cupcake Bakery Mystery #15
Published by Berkley on October 10, 2023
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
four-stars
Also by this author: Pumpkin Spice Peril, For Batter or Worse, Strawberried Alive
Also in this series: For Batter or Worse, Strawberried Alive

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Jenn McKinlay is without a doubt an OG of the baking mystery genre. I’ve been a fan since the first book. Sugar Plum Poisoned is the delicious new book in her long running  Cupcake Bakery Mystery series

About Sugar Plum Poisoned

Sugar Plum Poisoned, like the rest of the series, is a sweet treat. It’s enticing with likable characters, delicious descriptions of cupcakes,and a solid puzzle sprinkled with humor. For longtime readers, you get to check-in with all of your favorite characters. Like a cupcake, it’s easy to devour this cozy mystery but you’ll want to savor it so you don’t miss a single crumb of a clue. Fun for  longtime readers – Marty twerks in a Santa suit! And with enough backstory so that new readers won’t feel lost, Sugar Plum Poisoned is a yummy holiday read.

Much to Mel’s dismay, her Fairy Tale Cupcake’s co-owner and BFF, Angie, agrees to provide cupcakes in the VIP lounge while Shelby, an old friend and up and coming singing sensation, is performing a two week holiday gig . Things go from hectic to deadly when Shelby’s unpleasant manager is found dead – clutching a partially eaten cupcake. Now it’s up to Mel, Angie, and the rest of the cupcake crew to clear their names and find the killer.

My thoughts about Sugar Plum Poisoned

The mystery is solid – Shelby’s manager was a controlling jerk – so there are a lot of plausible suspects. The book moves at a quick pace with several humorous moments. I love that the author keeps developing the relationships between the character and lets us see how their lives are progressing from one book to the next.

In closing

If you haven’t, make sure to read the earlier Cupcake Bakery Mysteries.

For fans of Debra Sennefelder and Sarah Fox.

Thank you Berkley for the ARC of Sugar Plum Poisoned.

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About Jenn McKinlay

I wrote several mysteries. I submitted to agents and publishers. No one loved the whole package. They loved my characters and hated my plot or vice versa. It was agony. Then a lone voice, an agent, decided she thought I was a genius (always a good sign).

She signed me and now I had a buddy to suffer the rejection with me. It still hurt. We kept trying. It went on for two years. And then we sold! In 2008, I agreed to write a decoupage mystery series, then I submitted an idea for a cupcake bakery mystery series and it sold. Sadly, my original agent left to pursue new and different dreams of her own. I stayed with my agency, liking her partner very much. I knew it was a good match when I submitted an idea for a library lover’s series and my new agent loved it and sold it.

You’d think I’d rest now. You know, take a chill pill and just enjoy the ride. Yeah, I’m not built that way. After so many years of hours hunched over my keyboard, banging out stories, years spent checking my mail box and my email inbox for good news, I don’t think I’ll rest until I really feel like I’ve achieved what I set out to do. And so, I agreed to write the bargain hunters series and then, I sold another idea for a mystery series set in London, which is my fifth mystery series.

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