Peppermint Cream Die by Carol E. Ayer
Publisher: Camel Press
Genre: Suspense/Mystery/Thriller, Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeWhen home bakery owner Kayla Jeffries discovers her elderly friend has been strangled, she draws upon her strengths as an HSP(Highly Sensitive Person) to help solve the murder and restore peace to her quiet oceanside community.
Sleepy, quiet communities aren’t supposed to be this dangerous.
The character development was well done. Not only was Kayla a well-rounded and complex person, several of the secondary characters she spent the most time with were as well. I enjoyed slowly peeling back the layers to all of them. No one was quite who they appeared to be at first glance, but every new revelation about them made sense and only served to endear me to them even more. There’s something wonderful about getting to know multiple characters as well as I did, especially when their personality quirks began to affect the folks around them in all sorts of unexpected ways.
With that being said, I found the cast of characters to be a little too large in general. It was one thing to get to know Kayla and those closest to her, but the storyline sometimes veered off into long descriptions of characters who rarely if ever showed up again. While I usually appreciate a lot of details in the mysteries I read, in this particular case it could have been toned down a bit so that the most important residents of Seaside Shores would have more time to shine. This is a minor criticism of something I otherwise enjoyed reading.
Some of my favorite passages were the ones that described the many tantalizing desserts Kayla made for her clients. Not only did they sound amazing, seeing how she responded to all of the variables that come with baking sweets gave me so much insight into her personality. Her calm reactions to the occasional kitchen mishap and her quiet pride when a recipe turned out even better than she hoped were both a great deal of fun to read. On a lighthearted note, her successful baking projects also made my mouth water!
Peppermint Cream Die was a satisfying read. Anyone who has a sweet tooth should check it out.