I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. Though too short for me I really enjoyed this book.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Jake and Ellie really have their hands full in this Death by Chocolate Mystery. The town’s annual cookie-baking contest is right around the corner and they are hoping that putting Mika in charge of the entry will cure her baby blues. Her husband Sam has some blues of his own. His employee Billy Breyer found one of their client’s dead body when he arrived for work and sadly all the evidence points to him as the killer. The victim was not a nice man and had made his share of enemies. So with a long suspect list, Jake and Ellie agree to do their best to get Billy out of jail and the real guilty party there in his place.

Wildfires, wild wills, and wild rides! Sarah Graves takes us readers on a wild trip to find out who killed cranky old Alvin Carter and why.

Jake and Ellie are great characters with their fingers in everything that happens in Eastport, Maine. They are smart and creative but have a real tendency to leap into action without thinking through all the consequences that can occur as they try to get to the truth and a killer.

I really enjoyed that Sam and Mika had a bigger part in this story. So many women deal with baby blues, postpartum depression, baby brain, etc. following the birth of a baby. I appreciated the way Ellie and Jake helped her see her way through a tough time.

Jake’s stepmother is also having issues and the whole family knows it but it is hard to get through to a woman as independent as Bella. The author did an excellent job with this situation.

I also like meeting Billy’s sisters, Anna and Helen. These are young women with hopes and dreams with plans to make them come true. Their Aunt Prunia, such an appropriate name, has totally different ideas for their future. The girls and their brother Billy have had tragedy in their lives and I was thrilled to see such positive attitudes from all of them.

Pinning down a killer this time was really tough especially with grass fires popping up everywhere. Ellie and Jake took some crazy risks. I wanted to jump into the book and reel them in but that being impossible I scooched up to the edge of my seat a few times as the pages flew. I was 82% into the book when a bird hit a window and from there I was sitting up straight and everything in the room around me disappeared. I was caught spellbound by what was happening on the pages. Things settled down by 93% and things were explained and cookie-baking winners were revealed but it took me a couple of minutes to catch my breath.

Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle was a blast to read. I think Ms. Graves hit it out of the park with this story. I loved it!

Jake Tiptree and Ellie White, owners of the Chocolate Moose, are trying to get Jake's daughter-in-law baking again. The recipe for the chocolate isn't quite right. Before they can figure it out, Alvin Carter, a retired lawyer, is found murdered and the evidence is pointing to Billy Breyer. Jake and Ellie, close friends to Billy's young sisters, are determined that they will find a way to clear his name. But that might be tough because while they're out searching for answers, the area is being inundated with brush fires. Are they accidental or is someone throwing a smoke screen up to hide the truth?

Love to see Jake and her family and friends as well as hear about all the goodies at the Chocolate Moose. Characters are developing nicely, wish I could visit the Chocolate Moose!

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. I would recommend reading the first book in this series to get to know the characters better. But overall this book is well written. I absolutely recommend this book and series to anyone and everyone. This book is in stores for $26.00 (USD).

When I saw the title and cover of this book I just knew I had to read it.
Cozy mysteries involving baking are always a fun read.
A solid story that kept me guessing with it's many twists and turns.
Now I need to read the others in this series as well.

Pub Date: 23 Feb 2021
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you.
All opinions expressed are my own.

I really enjoy this series so I was glad to read and review it. I love everything about this series and the characters are just so likable. As a definite chocoholic The Chocolate Moose definitely appeals to me and so do Jake and Ellie's adventures. This book was extra fun because Mika played a bigger role than usual. With a current murder and an old murder Jake has her hands full in this book.

I liked this story, it has all the hallmarks of a cozy mystery... although, I would have to say this one maybe more in the suspense range of the spectrum. A lot of crime solving, family drama (i.e. Billy and his sisters), and a fire that leads to a pretty precarious and life threatening conclusion. I liked that Jake and Ellie set out to help Billy and clear his name, but wonder if it was necessary. I did like that the two ladies were trying to help re-inspire Jake's daughter-in-law to enter the baking competition and get her mojo back, mom brain and all.

It took me a minute, but I realized that the main characters in this story are the same from the Home Repair series by the same author... I can't wait to read the others in this series.

Jake and Ellie are over their heads again while solving a mystery. Nothing is simple with these two. Most of the book is either Jake's clumsiness or Hollywood style action. I was most frustrated by the nonchalant treatment of the fire scenes. Having been in similar situations as a firefighter I am amazed that the heroines were immune to the extreme heat and smoke. By the end I was just happy it was over.

This is book 4 in the Death by Chocolate cozy series. It can be read as a stand alone but all Sarah Graves books are worth picking up and enjoying. Jake and Ellie have enjoyed a good summer season at the Chocolate Moose and are looking forward to the cookie bake-off. Their bakery has always enjoyed success and are happy to participate, When a local is murdered, the prime suspect is friend Billy whose sisters want Ellie and Jake to help prove him innocent. Set in Maine while fire season is on high alert the duo must not become the next target or burn down the island. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is the first book I've read by Sarah Graves. It is part of a series, but this can be read as a standalone. The mystery itself of trying to find out who murdered the curmudgeonly Alvin Carter was good, I was unable to figure it out before they did.

I had trouble with other parts of the book that took me out of the story at times. (Mainly issues with how their bakery was run). For example, towards the beginning of the story they talked about getting a special order for 12 dozen cookies and how can they possibly get that done? I think I personally would have enjoyed this more if them owning a bakery was not part of the story it didn't really add anything *for me*.

I'll definitely read another book in the series because I do love this type of mystery.

Jake and Ellie first met when Jake and her teenage son, Sam, moved to Maine and impulsively bought a fixer-upper. Jake taught herself to do repairs, and with Ellie’s help, the house looks like a house instead of a soon-to-be pile of rubble. Now they’ve embarked on a new venture—The Chocolate Moose, a bakery, featuring all things chocolate and/or tasty. The annual cookie contest is coming up, and they don’t have time to deal with it. However, Sam is grown now, has a wife, Mika, and two kids, and Mika needs to clear the fog of Mommy Brain and get back to work—if she remembers how. A new cookie recipe should be just the challenge for her.

The local curmudgeon is found with an ax in his head, fatal, of course. Sam’s business partner, Billy, is a prime suspect. He was on the scene, covered in blood, moved the body—could he look any guiltier? Jake and Ellie have been involved in murder investigations before so they set out to prove Billy is innocent.

With a suspects list longer than the bakery’s supplies order, the pair starts to eliminate the innocent. Before they can make a lot of headway, wildfires on the island are coming from every direction. With a little breaking and entering, general snooping, and a lot of luck, the two are certain they can get Billy out of this jam.

Jake and Ellie are quite the pair, brave and willing to take risks for those they love. Between the bakery, home life, investigating, and the cookie contest, they get more done before breakfast than some people do in a week. They’re also willing to explain how some of their goodies are made.

This is book four in the series, all reviewed here. Graves also writes the Home Repair is Homicide mysteries, sixteen in all, featuring the same characters, Jake and Ellie and their assorted families and friends. At the back of the book, find the recipe for Old Fashioned Chocolate Sauce.

4 th book in this series

Jake and Ellie are getting ready for Eastport, Maine’s Great Downeast Snickerdoodle bake-off.
But when a fire threatens to ravage the quaint Island town, Jake and Ellie must investigate another homicide.

Jake and Ellie are owners of the Chocolate Moose bakery where their customers expect them to win the Snickerdoodle competition. But there in it for the fun and to try and get Jake’s daughter in-law into baking again. When Alvin Brown is murdered and all the evidence points to a Tiptree family friend Billy Sewell.

Jake and Ellie have to prove his innocence. But there are so many suspects that the retired lawyer swindle its hard to find just one. But as they are looking into the murder grass fires blaze across the island cutting off access to the mainland. Now Jake and Ellie have to work fast to find the killer before anyone else gets burned.

I love this series and can’t wait for the next book in this series.
Ma

As the proprietors of The Chocolate Moose, Eastport, Maine’s best and only chocolate bakery, Jake Tiptree and Ellie White are expected to enter and make a good showing in the town’s annual cookie baking contest. But the murder of local curmudgeon Alvin Carter proves a puzzle our two inveterate snoops cannot resist, especially when they have an interest in the man accused of killing Alvin, Billy Breyer. Jake’s son Sam relies on Billy to help keep his landscaping business running, while Ellie is actively involved in the welfare of Billy’s younger sisters, Helen and Anne, who often stop by the Chocolate Moose to do their homework between school and shifts on lobster boats. The Breyer girls dream of saving up enough money to afford a boat of their own, but Billy’s arrest means that their only other adult relative, Prunia Deveraux, has carte blanche to step in and order the girls around, forcing them to be the proper young misses she imagines they should be.

With all this as motivation, Jake and Ellie decide to give Jake’s daughter-in-law Mika the chance to work herself out of her mommy-brain fug by taking over cookie contest responsibilities. Now free to indulge in questionably legal investigative antics, our intrepid duo digs into Alvin’s life and death while dodging the local police chief, the disapproving but overall friendly Bob Arnold. Trouble is, all the evidence they find points squarely at Billy’s guilt. With dry season wildfires looming in the background, as well as ongoing concerns as to the well-being of their extended clans, how far are Jake and Ellie willing to go to ensure that justice is served for Alvin and Billy both?

This was another surprisingly wild ride of a culinary cozy here in the Death By Chocolate mystery series. Jake and Ellie’s scrapes are by turns hilarious and exceedingly dangerous, especially when they’re trying to outrun Mother Nature. The mystery was well-crafted, with layers that deftly obscured whodunnit so that I kept second-guessing myself till near the very end. But the greatest strength of this novel is in the enormous heart shown to its cast of characters, and especially to the impoverished and infirm. The threat of penury -- of being sick and old and homeless -- looms realistically large for far too many people in this novel, a heartbreaking commentary on life in one of the wealthiest nations in the world.

There was only one recipe included, but it’s a multipurpose treat:

QUOTE
Old-Fashioned Chocolate Sauce

Melt together two tablespoons of butter and two ounces of unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler or in a saucepan over very low heat. Stir in a cup of sugar and half a cup of water. Add half a teaspoon of vanilla extract and continue stirring over low heat until the sauce thickens.

And that’s it. You can spoon some of this chocolate sauce over a scoop of vanilla ice cream as soon as it’s done, just to make sure it turned out okay.
END QUOTE

Here’s the ingredient list, for an at-a-glance rundown:

2 Tbsp butter
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
½ tsp vanilla extract

It’s all pantry staples, which makes this sauce pretty easy to pull together. However, I wasn’t sure how much time I was meant to leave the sauce to thicken, and probably took it off too early to decorate the brownie sundaes my kids were clamoring for. It was very delicious, despite looking quite grainy still after about fifteen minutes of thickening over low heat. I actually left the sauce on the stovetop for thirty minutes more before turning the burner off to let it cool. Once at room temperature, I poured the sauce into a nice glass container and stored it in the fridge. Having used it several times since then, I can attest to the texture of the sauce being as thick and rich as any storebought kind!

Next week, we go all the way cross-country to the Pacific Northwest to try a breakfast treat that pairs perfectly with the sauce we just made here, while investigating a dreadful murder. Do join me!

Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle by Sarah Graves
Publisher: Kensington Books
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Release Date: February 23, 2021

Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle by Sarah Graves is the fourth book in A Death by Chocolate Mystery series. I had not read the previous books, but was easily able to read this as a standalone mystery.

I found this to be very enjoyable! This has a great storyline, interesting characters, and an intriguing mystery! I found it captivating and did not want to put it down!

I look forward to reading the other books in the series!

I'm so grateful to Sarah Graves, Kensington Books, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Princess Fuzzypants here: I like this series. Really I do. I like the characters and how they interconnect with each other in a big family and an even bigger community. I think Ellie and Jake are two strong determined ladies, as are the other female characters. They get into trouble together. In fact, if I was a hall monitor and they were at school I would separate them. Because one or the other is constantly dragging the other into some sort of chaos, thanks to their good intentions in solving crimes.

This time son Sam’s partner is in jail accused of hatcheting an unpleasant old man. If there was a rule book for what to do to make yourself look guilty, Billy could have written it. But it is not just his life in jeopardy. His two younger sisters,, whom he has raised since the death of his parents are likely to lose all their hopes and dreams if he goes to jail. I get it. There are a lot of lives impacted by this event. I get that the ladies want to help. I get that they are pretty smart. So why do they insist on blundering into dangerous situation after dangerous situation. And even when they have to be rescued by the long suffering local cop/friend, they still continue in their pursuit. I might be nominating them for a Darwin Award but the stories are compelling and fast paced and even when I want to scream, I read on. It is a love-hate relationship.

Be warned. But be entertained. Four purrs and two paws up.

When Billy Breyer is suspected of murdering Alvin Carter, a man known for always being cranky Jake knows she has to help. Not only is Billy a family friend he also works for her son whose business starts taking some hits because there are more jobs than her son can take on alone. At the same time Jake is trying to figure out how she can help her daughter-in-law who seems to be having trouble separating motherhood from her work life. Jake and her friend Ellie start making a list of suspects and ticking them off one by one. There are so many people who hated the man and even more who wanted his money. They also come up with a plan to help Jakes daughter-in-law get back to the strong woman she was before the baby. Things start to get dangerous when a fire burns down Alvins house while Jake is inside, luckily she escspes but finding a killer is imperative. Follow along and see where the clues lead and if Jake can catch a killer before someone else ends up dead.

Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle is the fourth in this series, but can be read as a standalone. Having said that, this is a great series and once you read this one you will want to read them all, so you may as well start at the beginning. I really enjoy this series with its humour, quirky characters and wonderful family and friends. Jacobia (Jake) Tiptree runs The Chocolate Moose with her BFF Ellie. This book finds the town in the midst of their annual cooking baking contest and the partners are planning to enter, just for fun. Before the contest even starts up, Jake's son informs her that the town's retired lawyer, recluse, swindler etc., Alvin Carter, has been killed, found with a hatchet in his skull. Sam's employee and family friend, Billy Breyer, is the main suspect and subsequently is arrested. His two younger sisters who live with him come to Jake for help. They do not want to have to go and live with their Aunt Prunia. She has to prove his innocence. With Jake and Ellie on the investigation, police chief Bob Arnold is going to have more on his hands than finding the killer.

This was another fun, interesting, well-written and plotted story. I love Jake and her friends. They get into such predicaments during their investigations, you have to laugh. They are lucky to have family and friends to pull them out of the frying pan before they end up in the fire. Poor Bob is constantly threatening to arrest them, but hasn't had to yet. I do enjoy their banter, and you know he always seems to know what they are up to. The mystery was interesting and I did not know who the culprit was, but there sure were plenty of suspects in this one. The final showdown was exciting and dangerous, but the ladies ended up okay with the help of Bob and some others. I like that Sarah Graves includes the life of Jake's family and friends in the stories. Mika, Jake's sister-in-law, is dealing with post-partum life and the issues that come with it. It is handled in a wonderful way in this story, as a normal part of life and she will be playing a more prominent role in future books. I also enjoyed Helen's and Anna's side story. Dealing with an upheaval in your life, not once but twice when you are in your teens is difficult, but these young ladies came out on top and I hope they will make an appearance in the next book as well. I definitely recommend this book and series to cozy mystery lovers.

I loved this even before I knew what chocolate snickerdoodle was. I loved characters, relationship dynamics, loved the banter between characters, and setting, I absolutely loved the setting. A small beachside town amazing and busting to the seams in summer and struggling in off season, surrounded by dry land and open to the weather and its punishment.
Being a fourth installment in the series Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle is read easily as stand alone novel. However, author does leave enough crumbs to get reader's tastebuds tingling for more and for more details of back story.
This cozy mystery was about 'snoop' by two amazing ladies into a murder. And this book was about community spirit in the face of danger, family interconnection and support for one another. And all of the stories and plot lines were interweaved and sugared with various cookies and cakes. What more a committed chocoholic could want? Book 1 through 3, I guess.
Looking back I think this book was more about characters and their dynamics rather than murder and solving it. I loved Jake and Ellie and their families. I felt for orphan girls trying to clear their brother's name. I absolutely despised old nosy lady who thought everyone was her business only to grudgingly respect her at the end. What can I say, I enjoyed this book

A nice addition to a fine series, in this one Jake and Ellie must find the real murderer of local curmudgeon Alvin Brown when it looks like Sam's partner Billy is about to be railroaded as the guilty party by some rather startling circumstantial evidence. The two put their not always successful best efforts into it with a background of summer drought and fires, the onset of mom-brain in Mika and age in Bella, and the quick approach of the local Cookie Bake-Off. A good combination of elements, stirred sufficiently to keep the pace steady and the suspense just right. Very enjoyable.

It's always a fun and suspense-filled roller coaster ride when Jake and Ellie are on a case! I'm always sitting there reading as fast as I can as they get into one investigating scrape after the other, but most of the time they get away without being seen. Although their friend and police officer Bob's watchful eyeballs usually do see them or had a report of them doing something, and they have to answer to his lecture later. At least he's never gone through with his arrest threat...yet lol.

I know who I desperately wanted to be the killer, but things don't usually work that way. At least I had the real killer in my radar. The showdown was quite the hair-raising experience for the girls, followed by everything being explained with a nice wrapped-up ending.

I liked that they addressed Mika's issues after having her second child. I've heard it 's a very real thing to have brain fog trying to take care of a toddler and an infant. The solution couldn't have been better though, and it helped several people by ending up that way. I liked Helen and Anna's side story too, and that ended well for all involved. I'm always looking forward to the next book and what adventure one of my favorite bestie sleuth pairs will get into next!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.