Val Deniston runs a café and caters privately in people's homes, she lives with her grandad who turns his hand to most things and also has a five ingredient food blog. This weekend however they are at the Maryland Mystery Fan Fest organised by Val's best friend, Bethany, where Grandad is entering the Deadly Desserts bake-off and Val is a volunteer.

One of the other cook-off competitors was Grandad's nemesis, Cynthia Sweet, the woman who claimed his blog idea as her own and got a book deal on the back of it. After the contest is over however, everyone enjoys an entertaining night at the bar, discussing cooking and an unsolved death at the hotel the previous year. By morning one of those present will be dead and, it seems, more than a few of the others won't be sorry to hear the news.

With the success of the Fan Fest and Bethany's reputation at stake Val knows she needs to find out who is responsible before anyone else is put in danger. As no killer wants to be caught Val has her work cut out for her if she's to solve the case before everyone leaves the hotel on the Sunday.

I enjoyed this seventh Five Ingredients Mystery Series addition with its main protagonists out of their comfort zone of Bayport, Maryland. Instead they find themselves, along with the other murder mystery fans, in a very nice hotel ready to indulge in all things criminal. There are an entertaining variety of potential killers to work through and a good selection of red herrings to confuse and misdirect.

The only thing I found strange was at no time did the hotel manager get a mention and, even in a fictional setting, I would have thought they would be involved. This is a fun read however, and Val and Granddad work really well as an original crime-busting duo.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the opinions expressed are my own. I enjoyed this very much and hope there will be more adventures from this series soon.

The mystery reveal was a little underwhelming and expected, but I still enjoyed the cozy mystery read.

This one had me hooked from the beginning with its nod to Agatha Christy's use of a list of characters at the beginning of the story. Toss in regular references to not just Christie, particularly "Murder on the Orient Express", Sherlock Holmes, and Miss Marple, and it was fun from the start. Val Deniston and her grandfather, Don, are attending the Maryland Mystery Fan Fest and find themselves involved in a real murder: Who killed Cynthia Sweet?

Needless to say, surrounded by mystery buffs, the theories and suspects are many. In fact, many in the crowd seem determined to believe the murder and appearance of the police, not to mention the collapse of another attendee in the bar, are all part of the show. Toss in that the hotel was the site of another unsolved mystery a year ago and it's all just too exciting for many to believe reality has intruded again.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Val and Grandpa Don, both of whom are smart and able to think things through. For Don, however, he is a tad distracted by the disappearance of his Nero Wolfe inspired boxed book of recipes. Is that disappearance somehow connected? Cynthia had been accused of stealing others' ideas before, so why not a genuine, valuable keepsake. And, what does a tea kettle have to do with anything? Why were some attendees going to such extremes to disguise themselves? Poison rings? Inheritances? What would drive someone to murder?

Bottom line, this one grabbed my attention from the beginning and held it until the surprising end. Thanks #NetGalley and #KensingtonBooks for inviting me to this so to speak, mystery fest gathering. Looking forward to spending more time with Val and her grandfather soon. Maybe he'll share more recipes!

What was supposed to be a weekend of murder pleasure turns into a real murder. Val's granddad is competing in the Deadly Desserts bake off. Each baker had to play a role that was assigned to them from a murder mystery book. One of the contestants in the bake off and granddad's nemesis is Cynthia Sweet. But when she is found killed, things get concerning to find her killer. Was it granddad? I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

A dead body.. A missing recipe book. A medieval poison ring.. A tea kettle.. What a wonderful cozy! Several mysteries are solved during the mystery writers and aficionados weekend when a death of a participant needs to be investigated. A solid time line needs to be established, and Val and her grandpa are just the ones to do it. With twists and turns galore, this is a wonderful addition to an established series.

Bake Offed is the 8th book in the 5 Ingredient Recipe series by Maya Corrigan. This is the first one that I have read and I plan to read the previous ones in the series. Val and her grandpa attend a mystery fest for the weekend as planned by her best friend. Val as a volunteer and grandpa as a bake off competitor. He soon finds out that one of the competitors is his perceived nemesis who he feels stole his 5 Ingredient recipe idea and is capitalizing on it through a published book, Cynthia Sweet. The mystery begins immediately upon their arrival to the fest upon check in. Grandpa receives a warning in his packet to watch out for Cynthia who will sabotage his bake. Shortly after the bake off competition, Cynthia ends up dead and it is unknown if it is due to natural causes or if foul play has occurred. Everyone becomes a suspect and the story had me guessing even to the very end. I thought I had it figured out and was surprised even at the final aha moment. Fun read, reccomend to fellow cozy mystery readers and will definitely be reading more from this author in the near future. Thank you #NetGalley and #Kensington Publising for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.

Val Deniston has agreed to help her best friend Bethany O’Shea who is running the Maryland Mystery Fan Fest. Val’s grandfather is also involved – he is competing in a dessert competition playing Nero Wolfe’s gourmet cook Fritz. Val thinks it will be a nice relaxing weekend but that changes quickly when one of the contestants in the dessert competition is murdered and her granddad’s priced recipe box goes missing. Val and her grandfather have solved mysteries together in the past so they work together to solve this one but they have their work cut out for them if they want to solve the murder before the Fan Fest is over.

“Bake Offed” – the eighth book in Maya Corrigan’s Five-Ingredient Cozy Mystery Series – is a nicely done cozy mystery. I have not read any of the other books in the series, so the characters were new to me but I thoroughly enjoyed them, especially the relationship between Val and her grandfather. I also liked the Mystery Fan Fest storyline – I’ve always wanted to attend one and I’m happy that at least I got to attend one in a book. I loved the homage to various mysteries – especially the nod to Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express”. The Mystery Fan Fest also offers plenty of suspects and Corrigan adds many twists and turns to the mystery – just when I thought I knew whodunit, she threw in another twist – well done! My one complaint about this mystery is that Val spent much time texting clues to the detective in charge of the case making it look like he was useless without her (and her grandfather’s help).

“Bake Offed” is a nicely done cozy mystery.

Such a yummy series with it's recipes. Defending family against a fan fest set in Maryland feeling like a "mystery theater dinner" this was a very enjoyable read and a great addition.

Loved reading this book and author. If you haven't read it yet I highly recommend her and her books. I suggest reading in order. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

What a fun cozy mystery. I enjoyed the plot and the fun twists throughout the book. Can't wait to read more!

Val supports her friend and Grandfather at a Maryland Mystery fan festival that has a ton of activities over the weekend. Her Granddad participates in a cooking event where recipes inspired by classic mystery characters are shared. Granddad is my favorite character. He is funny and it takes a lot for Val to rein him in sometimes. Luckily the suspect pool is fairly large so Val has many people to look into to help solve the case.

This is a great series that combines humor and easy to cook recipes. I really enjoy seeing the character development and look forward to the next installment.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for access to a copy of an eARC so I could give an honest review.

This story was OK, but the murder mystery fan fest wasn't as fun as I thought it would be and I found the mystery elements rather repetitive this time.

I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I'm glad I started this series. I don't love cooking but i like reading about the recipes in this series.

This is such a fun series, and I had a great time with this cozy mystery. I loved the plot, the twists and turns, and the characters!

Keep guessing because this one will keep twisting on you! I love that! Great characters. Fun exciting story plot! An excellent addition to the series! Thanks #netgalley and #Keningston for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

Baked offed is book eight in this fun food themed cozy mystery series. Although this is the first book I've read in this series, it could easily be read as a stand-alone. Val Dennison is volunteering at the Maryland Mystery fest and her feisty grandpa is competing in the deadly desserts bake off. He is not happy to learn his nemesis, Cynthia sweet, will be competing against him. He isn't the only one with a grudge against Cynthia. as she is found murdered in her room, with the teakettle left whistling. Val and grandpa decide to sleuth out the other contestants, festival goers, hotel staff, and whomever else who could be the murderer; before the weekend is up. This was a good solid read with likeable characters, a good plot, and lots of red herrings. I'm looking forward to the next book in this new to me series. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the advance copy.

When the Deadly Desserts bake-off lives up to its name, Val and Granddad turn up the heat on a killer . . .
I enjoyed this installment. I love the relationship between Val and her granddad.
#BakeOffed #NetGalley

Val and Grandpa are off to a mystery lovers weekend. While Val is volunteering to help her BFF who is running the event, Grandpa is participating in a bake off with his arch rival, Cynthia Sweet. When Cynthia is murdered and Val finds the body, she can’t help but get involved in trying to figure out whodunit

While some attendees think the death is all part of the event, Val and Grandpa know there’s a killer on the loose and build a list of suspects and then try to figure out how and why they committed murder. It won’t be easy with a group of mystery lovers who all can come up with several different ways to get away from murder..but which ones are just using what they’ve read and which one is trying to get away with murder?

I adore Grandpa and Val snd knowing they
re from the Eastern shore makes this series near and dear to my heart, as I came of age in Maryland and have many fond memories of times spend on the Eastern shore. Between the setting and the solid mystery in each and every book, I couldn’t ask for a better cozy series on my must read list. Each reads fine as a stand alone, but you’ll enjoy the series so much you’ll want to binge on the previous seven books, making this a series that you can spend some time with if you haven’t yet read it.

Maryland, series, recipes, cozy-mystery, cooking, cookbook, theft, murder, murder-investigation, law-enforcement, family, family-dynamics, friendship, amateur-sleuth, closed-circle-mystery****

A mystery themed bake-off with contestants as the chefs of famous sleuths, big rivalry, a theft, a murder of a rather poisonous contestant. Enter Val and her grandfather to sleuth once again. I didn't realize that this was book 8 in series, so I think that a devotee of the series would appreciate it more than I did. But there are some very interesting characters, intriguing red herrings, and plot twists to die for (couldn't resist). The publisher's blurb is a good hook! A good read!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Kensington Books/Kensington Cozies via NetGalley. Thank you!

I like this series and love Val and Grandpa. I'm not sure why but I didn't enjoy this entry. The story read very slow for me and I just want interested in what was happening. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read.