Description
Val’s crime-solving club digs into a piping hot new case! A poetry slam at a bakery? Why not! Even though Pie Town proprietor Val Harris would rather be spending time with her newfound half-brother, she knows her employee Abril is beyond excited to be hosting the event. Especially since it stars the apple pie of Abril’s eye, poet and professor Michael Starke. But the evening ends on a sour note when Professor Starke is found murdered mere moments after being accused of plagiarism. Just like that, Pie Town is at the center of another criminal inquiry. At Abril’s request—and much to Detective Carmichael’s consternation—Val and Charlene decide to investigate Starke’s death. But the case is as tough as an overworked crust and the Baker Street Bakers are only coming up with scraps. If they don’t pinch the cultured killer soon, Pie Town’s reputation could crumble.

My Review
Pies Before Guys if the 4th installment in the A Pie Town Mystery Series. The characters are well written and it's definitely a quite enjoyable cozy mystery. Val Harris is hot on the trail to solve the brutal murder. Will she succeed?

Follow Val as she tries to figure out who murdered Professor Stark with a saber.

This ARC was provided to me in exchange for my honest opinion, thank you Kensington Books and Netgalley.

I give this a solid 5 star.

A well written and fun to read cozy mystery that made me smile and kept me guessing.
The story flows without any hiccup, the cast of characters is fleshed out, and the mystery is solid.
Can't wait to read the next installment.
Recommended.
Many thanks to Kensington Books and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

An entertaining and well written cozy mystery. Great plot and quirky characters. I received an arc from the publisher and this is my unbiased review.

Pie, murder and UFO's set the scene for this latest book. A poetry "slam" held at Pie Town results in the death of a local professor. Val and Charlene are trying hard not to become the latest victims!

I am a fan of the series and it had all the Val and Charlene humor as the other books. The mystery was complex and I didn't guess "whodunit" until the end. For me, I was a little annoyed by Charlene putting Val in dangerous situations and at Val for doing crazy things. Val's relationship with her newly found half-brother was sad because they couldn't seem to connect. I was glad to see Val stand up for herself in the end.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for a fair and honest review of this book.

Val Harris has been through some tough times, but now she's the owner of her own pie shop in a small California town. With the help of a diverse group of friends -- including a half-brother she recently learned of and an eccentric elderly pie crust expert -- she's determined to solve a mysterious literary murder that's threatening the health of her shop.
With a poem for a clue and plenty of complicated romantic entanglements, this is a fun read. The characters are quirky but not implausible, and the local color adds to the enjoyment. Smart dialogue and creative crimes round out the story.
If you haven't read the previous installments in the series, you won't get lost, but you should read them. The growth of the characters and their relationships are part of the fun.

Pies before Guys is another excellent addition in the Pie Town Mystery series. With each book that I read I become more immersed in the characters lives and revisiting them is like visiting old friends. Kirsten Weiss is a wonderful author and I truly hope she continues writing books in this series because they are all favorites of mine!

4.5 Stars

This is the fourth book in the Pie Town Mystery series by Kirsten Weiss.

Basic premise: A local professor is found dead after reading poetry at a poetry slam put on at the Pie Town Bakery. As soon as the body was discovered the suspect list just kept growing in leaps and bounds. Val reluctantly puts the Baker Street Bakers back into the mystery solving business, much to Detective Carmichael’s dismay.

There was all kinds of gooey goodness in this story. The characters were amazing. So fully formed it felt like I was reading about our neighbor’s exploits instead of reading a book. Even the cat had a quirky disposition.

I have to admit that the mystery was so good that when the killer was finally revealed, I was stunned. I didn’t even have that person on my suspect list. Figures! This series just keeps getting better and better and I look forward to each release as they come out.

If you haven’t read this series, might I suggest you start from the beginning. Let the atmosphere enfold you into the Pie Town goodness. You won’t regret it.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.

Pies, a tiny home, a likeable main character--plenty to like in this series. But I do find the constant back and forth over whether she should or shouldn't be investigating rather tiresome. This seems to be more and more common in cozies, and especially with a boyfriend cop (another common trope), it feels like the justification starts to take over the whole story.

Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

While I certainly didn't set myself up for success by crash landing into the middle of the series without reading any of the previous books (or anything else by this author), ultimately this story left me cold.

The setup is charming--Val runs a pie shop in a small town and, along with her pie crust maker Charlene, she can't help but engage in some amateur sleuthing anytime a body is found. Unfortunately, the town is filled with with flat, one-note characters--crotchety old guys always eager for some new gossip, youths who are only identified by their interest in gaming, some weirdos that are super passionate about UFOs, Charlene's nemesis Marla, and Val's seemingly perfect cop boyfriend Gordon. Perhaps all those characters are more fully fleshed out in the previous books, but in this one those characters felt like hastily sketched stereotypes so as to ensure that Val's pie shop wasn't perpetually empty.

What I found to be the most frustrating, though, was Val and Charlene's relationship. It reeks of codependency. Val is perpetually taking responsibility for Charlene's erratic behavior, worrying about Charlene's safety and welfare when she disappears on her, and putting Charlene's (sometimes bonkers) needs before her own, even at the risk of her own physical safety. Multiple times during the story I wanted to shake Val and tell her that her relationship with Charlene is not what a healthy, found-family relationship looks like. Maybe for some other folks Charlene's behavior reads as a wacky old broad just out there in the world loving life and being spontaneous, but all I could see was a lack of healthy boundaries and a clear need for Val to go see a therapist.

I love this fun, cozy mystery series. This can be read as a stand-alone, but I would recommend reading the rest of the series to get to know the characters better. This had a great mystery, but it was also nice to see how all the characters were doing.

This is the 4th installment in the Pie Town Mystery series. Val and Charlene have a poetry slam (never heard of this before this book!) at the pie shoppe in hopes of getting some of the university students to come and Abril her employee is thrilled to death (pardon the pun) as she has a thing for professor Michael Starke who gets accused of plagiarism and then ends up murdered. Abril wants Charlene and Val to investigate and then the fun begins. Charlene is a hoot and the story is a fast read that keeps you engaged in the story and the characters. Fun loving mystery and really enjoy the series.

This is a fun book to spend an afternoon on. I have been reading the series from the beginning so I am familiar with the characters. That helps a bit as some introductions are light. Val gets drawn into the mystery due to the body showing up not long after a poetry slam that was held at her pie shop. Val and her sidekick, Charlene, sitick their noses into the business of some of the professors and students at the nearby college. The characters help make the story interesting. Charlene is a hoot. She involves Val in a side story of a fake UFO sighting using Pie Town tins! She brings some levity into the story.. I enjoyed reading about their exploits and hope the brother, Doran, will be brought into future books more.

This is a fun addition to this cozy mystery series.
When a poetry reading goes horribly wrong, Val and Charlene are back to investigating while creating mouthwatering pies.
Charlene also has her hands full trying to avoid Marla as well as creating interesting UFO pics.

Be sure to mark your calendar for the release date.

A cute series, filled with fun and quirkiness. Pies Poetry and UFOs, what a combo to keep it interesting. Looking forward to more.

I don't like the Pie Town series as much as Kirsten's other series. That said I liked this one. It has a lot going on. I especially like the pie tin UFO's. I think it could have been tightened up a little bit in the middle as it seemed to cover the same ground several times. #PiesbeforeGuys #NetGalley

Val Harris hosts a poetry slam for the local community college at her Bakery hoping to drum up some business for Pie Town. When one of the professors who read his poetry is found dead, Pie Town is linked to yet another murder in San Nicholas and that puts the Baker Street Bakers back in sleuthing mode to prove the murder was related to the pie shop.

Along with sleuthing, Charlene kicks off a little UFO themed marketing for the bakery. The ladies are dealing with more than baking pies and solving a murder as UFOnauts descend on the town and pie shop. Charlene continues on with her own quirky and crazy ways and Val follows right behind her. They may not be professional sleuths, but they have each other’s back and manage to sift the pieces of the puzzle to see the big picture. Hopefully they’ll be able to put all the pieces together before the murderer puts an end to the Baker Street Bakers for good.

A quirky and fun series where one book just isn’t enough to satisfy your cozy tooth. I keep coming back for another slice of Pie Town and enjoy each and every serving the author delivers. I also enjoy her Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum series and plan to read her Witches of Doyle series soon. A talent writer, perfect for those of us who love quirky characters in our cozy mysteries.