I was eager to read this book and was pleasantly pleased with the story line. The story grabbed my attention from the very beginning and kept me engaged from beginning to end.

The Hidden Corpse is the second book in Debra Sennefelder’s Food Blogger Mysteries series. This enjoyable read is steadily paced, with a great cast of well-developed characters and lots of twists and turns to keep the reader engaged.

Hope Early, a lifestyle and food blogger, recently moved back to her hometown of Jefferson, Connecticut; she’s renovating the home she purchased and adopted a dog named Bigelow. Her sister, Claire Dixon, also lives in Jefferson with her husband and two children, is a real estate agent, and has her name on the ballot for the upcoming mayoral election. Her best friend, Drew, is a reporter for the North Country Gazette newspaper. Drew’s feeling pressure because the paper is having financial problems and he’s competing with a new reporter, Norrie Jennings, for articles. Claire ropes Hope into hosting a tea party for Maretta Kingston, a potential candidate for a Planning and Zoning Commission position. Hope, along with fellow food bloggers, Felicity Campbell, Louis Maddox, and Elena Voss, is attending a food photography class presented by Cal Barnhart, whose wife, Lily, has been missing for three weeks. Lily is a forty-one-year-old architect and member of the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission. Hope becomes concerned for her elderly neighbor, Peggy Olson, after she fell asleep, woke up to a smoke filled kitchen and blaring smoke detectors, with no memory of having been cooking. While out on an evening run. Hope noticed smoke billowing from Peggy’s house, and when the fire department was able to enter the residence, Peggy had succumbed to smoke inhalation was burning, and Lily’s body was discovered in the kitchen. The fire is labeled as suspicious because an empty gasoline container was found by the garage. Hope, who loves a mystery and has always been able to figure out whodunit in mystery books, finds herself caught up, snooping around, in another murder investigation.

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

This is the 2nd in the Food Blogger mystery series and I can’t wait for the next one to come out. I loved this and stayed up all night finishing it. Hope Early is a food blogger and is attending a photography class by a famous food photographer whose wife has been missing for the last 3 weeks. Hope and her fellow bloggers are shocked the class is even continuing and Cal has reached out to Hope as a friend since she knew him back when she worked for a magazine. Hope is called upon by her elderly neighbor Peggy to come over and help after her smoke detector goes on. Peggy apparently left food on the stove. She is so upset and begs Hope not to tell her niece Meg as she does not want to go into a nursing home. She is just back from being in a rehab center. Hope reluctantly agrees and begins to have second thoughts the next day so on her nightly run she decides to go over to talk to Peggy but instead finds the house in flames. She tries to rush in to help Peggy but it held back. Peggy dies in the fire and another body was found in the house. Could it be the body of Lily Barnhart? It is later learned that there was a gasoline container by the house and it was arson. Hope cannot figure out who want to hurt Peggy unless the other body was in fact Lily. There are lots of twists and turns in this story and I love that one of the clues in the beginning that made me think it was an odd comment I totally forgot about because of all the other suspects. Hope is a great character as are all her friends that support her along the way. I love that this is a fast read the story keeps moving and I loved the ending. Do not want to give away a spoiler. You will not be disappointed in this installment and the next book cannot come out soon enough for me! Highly recommend.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book I love this author

This is a charming cozy mystery filled with likeable characters, an intrepid leading character in Hope Early, a lovely small town setting and a plot with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing all the way through. It also gives you an interesting insight into the career of food blogger. After a nasty divorce Hope has returned to her home town of Jefferson, Conn. and has a new career as a food blogger. She, along with some fellow food bloggers, is taking a photography course from famous food photographer Cal Barnhart, whose wife Lily has been missing for three weeks, Two days into the course Hope encounters a fire at the next door home of her neighbor Peggy Olson, and when the police investigate they find the fire was started by arson and there was a second body in the house, that of Lily Barnhart. Hope, along with her reporter friend Drew, and former mystery writer Jane decide to investigate, much to the displeasure of the local police (including Hope's potential love interest, the police chief Ethan. Was Lily targeted because of her work on the local planning and zoning committee or was it a more personal motive? Despite threats and warnings, Hope is on the case and she won't give up until she figures out who is responsible for the death of her neighbor and friend. I enjoyed this book and hope to see more of Hope in the future.