Jessa Maxwell’s debut novel The Golden Spoon is an Agatha Christie-esque manor house mystery meets The Great British Bake Off.

Six amateur bakers travel to the Vermont woods to participate in the hit TV show, “Bake Week”. Filming is set to take place at Grafton estate, the home of Betsy Martin, celebrity baker and the show’s host.

As filming kicks off, small things go wrong with the competitors bakes. Salt substituted for sugar. It’s the usual thing you would expect when you have a group of people in competition with each other. Someone has to be sent home at the end of each day and no one wants it to be them. But not all of the bakers are what they seem. Then a body turns up and everyone is a suspect.

This book is an addictive read. My best advice. Make sure you’re well rested and you have some sweet treats at hand, because this book will keep you reading and craving baked goods until late into the night.

I did anticipate a lot of the twists, but this in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the book. Instead, I think it indicates that Jessa Maxwell has written a well-plotted book filled with both clues and red herrings. The ending was so satisfying. I will definitely be looking out for Jessa Maxwell’s next book.

The Golden Spoon comes out on March 7 2023 and is available for preorder now.

Atria Books provided me with an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much @atriabooks and @netgalley for making this possible!

Loved this book! Great characters and enjoyed the baking competition details. Many twists and turns which kept me guessing until the end. Hope to read many more future novels of this author.

first of all, people going into this expecting a thriller will be disappointed. this is a book tailor made for Great British Bake Off fans, like me, and it reads more like a breakdown of the show and its participants. its visual writing style was perfect for this type of book (you want to be able to play the “show” in your head!) and i really enjoyed that! there are a few little pieces and puzzles that we put together throughout the book but it all feels very low stakes and more of a cozy mystery vibe - we don’t get the murder until 80% of the way in the book. i had a lot of fun and it was a perfect holiday read, but I do worry readers will go into this with the wrong expectations

I absolutely LOVED and DEVOURED this book!
If you love Great British Baking Show and murder mysteries then add this to your TBR immediately!

This books hooked me from the first page. It’s told through multi-POV like 7 POV’s I believe. Which sounds like a lot but I loved it! I enjoyed getting to know each character and trying to figure out who did what.

I wanted this book so bad so I’m super happy I saw that they were doing a read now option for the first 250 people, I ran so fast to NetGalley 😂

Overall this book just made me genuinely happy and it was a total pleasure to read!

Is it March yet? I want my copy 😭🥺

3.5 stars rounded up. I LOVED the concept of this book. I am not a baking show fan generally, but I appreciate a unique thriller when I come across one. However, I do think this falls a little flat on the thriller elements. In the first chapter we learn about a murder and you are kept waiting for the ball to drop till about 80% of the way through it. I wish it would have happened earlier so we could parse out who committed the murder. The killer was also pretty predictable and the one plot twist was not very surprising either.

With all of this said, this is a great unique concept from a debut author that I would recommend readers to keep on their radar. I’m excited to see what else she puts out.

I'm so glad that I was able to read an advance copy of this debut novel thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. This was a very fun read which combined a cozy-ish mystery with a knock-off of the British Bake-off. As a fan of both, this was just the book for me. The author did a great job bringing the characters to life, and she told the story from each character's point of view. It was easy to keep track of the characters and get to know them. I flew through the book enjoying the behind-the-scenes bake-off scenario, wondering who would get killed and who would have done it. I highly recommend this book for readers looking for a light and entertaining book.

I was sold on the premise of The Golden Spoon: Baking show meets Agatha Christie-style cozy murder mystery. Contestants gather at the mysterious Grafton Manor in Vermont to compete in Bake Week, a proxy for The Great British Baking Show. Although the show's host, Betsy Martin, is nowhere near as cheery as Mary Berry. In fact, she's bitter that the streaming service has brought in shiny co-host Archie Morris. The novel alternates between the first-person perspectives of the contestants, who are akin to Christie archetypes, and Betsy's third-person narration.

In execution, the novel is mainly atmosphere and character study with just a sprinkling of murder mystery. The murder mystery is teased at the book's start, then we don 't see it again until the book is 80% complete. The Golden Spoon could have benefitted from less character study, more plot. I was entertained, but I would have liked more mystery and storyline!

This is a very solid 3.5 for me. Delightful book to read. What I enjoyed the most was that it was set in America but still retained the hint of mysteries set in British country side. Good character development and I was invested in the characters. Would love to read more from this author.

This book combined two of my favorite things, mysteries and baking shows. Set in Vermont, we follow six contestants as they try to impress their host Betsy Martin until things take a turn. Fun, quick read. Add this to your shelf if you love cozy mysteries and baking.

A group of contestants assemble at a Vermont home to film the “Bake Week” competition….for a title that is worth killing for to someone.

For a decade, beloved cookbook author Betsy Martin has been inviting a group of bakers to Grafton, her family home in rural Vermont, to participate in a competition that is more “The Great British Bake-Off” then “Chopped”, But this time, things feel different. First, the streaming company where it will be shown has insisted that Betsy have a co-host, Archie Morris, a charming tv chef who is known for a more cutthroat approach to cooking competitions. Betsy’s assistant, Melanie, is acting less and less subordinate every day. Then there are the six contestants: the former journalist who has spent the last year teaching herself to bake; the pretty and ambitious young pie baker from Minnesota; the persnickety math teacher for whom baking is akin to chemistry; the eclectic entrepreneur for whom baking has become the latest adventure; the retired nurse who has been trying for years to be chosen for the show; and the builder who specializes in restoring old homes. First little things start going wrong…accidents or deliberate sabotage? But when a dead body is discovered, it is clear that someone at Grafton is after more than just the Golden Spoon trophy!
A quick and entertaining read, I very much enjoyed The Golden Spoon. This is not the type of “cooking mystery”” that features recipes in every chapter, The reader is to busy learning about each of the characters, with their quirks and their histories and, in many cases, their hidden agendas for coming to Grafton. From these backstories come the motives for the acts of sabotage and, ultimately, murder, but it isn’t clear until the very end just who is behind it all. If you are a fan of cooking competitions or like puzzling out a locked room mystery, you will find The Golden Spoon an addictive read. Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for allowing me access to the advanced reader’s copy.

This was so cute! A little more intense than a cozy mystery, but still felt like a cozy mystery to me. Definitely had a Bake-off vibe, which I loved. I also liked the alternating POVs and seeing the contest from each contestants’ POV. I knew where it was going and wasn’t surprised by the twists. Overall, very cute read!

Obviously for Bake Off fans - it was well paced. The setting was good. The contestants varied but the hosts were way too much like Paul and Prue which took away from the originality of the book. Still enetertaining - would be good for book clubs.

#TheGoldenSpoon #NetGalley Mystery lovers be ready! A wonderful story with a witty and intelligent mystery.

The new season of Bake Week is about to begin and the contestants arrive at the estate of the famous chef and host Betsy Martin to begin filming. The six bakers: Gerald, Lottie, Stella, Pradyumna, Hannah and Peter all hope to win the coveted Golden Spoon at the end of the contest. But something is different this year, a co-host, Archie Morris, has joined the show and not everyone is happy about this new addition. As the filming commences, strange ingredients go missing or are wrongly replaced, as someone seems to be trying to sabotage the competition. Everyone is a suspect and fears are heightened as the days go by and bakers are eliminated from the competition. When a dead body is discovered, the filming is suspended and a search to discover the identity of the murderer begins. This was a fast paced, highly entertaining novel. Just the right amount of mystery, deception, humor and murder. . I gave this novel 5 solid stars!

It's raining today in the Bay - the skies are grey and the wind is blowing the water drops nearly sideways. It's the perfect day to cuddle up under a warm blanket with a piping hot mug of Earl Grey, accompanied by a great story. And since I've been lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell, I decided it was the perfect day to dive into the world of baking competitions. (Many thanks to Simon & Schuster / Atria Books for the review copy!)

I've enjoyed cooking competitions basically since I first had access to the Food Network. My brother and I spent weekends watching Food Network Challenge - hours of experts showing off their craft to the fullest. It's always been about the drama inherent in creating something truly marvelous - no strange sabotages or cutthroat competition required. You can imagine my excitement when I learned of The Great British Bake-off, which optimizes for this precise flavor of drama. I immediately fell in love with the formula - amateur bakers, guided by baking masters and hosted by friendly comedians. I've been a fan for years.

So The Golden Spoon, which relates mysterious events at week-long amateur baking competition called Bake Week was always going to pique my interest. The novel combines a manor house mystery (the chefs are hosted at a remote Vermont manor) with the drama inherent in reality TV. It's a tricky balance between cozy vibes and scandal, and it's interesting to see how Maxwell tackles it. (Mild spoilers ahead!)

A carefully crafted cast

As with any reality show, much of the success of this novel rests in the cast. The story focuses on six bakers, each carefully selected for both baking skills and backstory. To win, the bakers must impress Betsy Martin, the long-time host often called "America's Grandmother". This year, they've introduced a new host and judge, Archie Morris, who's known for a more cutthroat style of competition. And the drama begins almost from the start: contestants sneak around the manor, ingredients are sabotaged, bakes rendered inedible.

As with any baking competition, caring about any of this means that you must care about the cast. Maxwell's done a good job of making sure this is the case. Each competitor has a backstory that makes them interesting and (for the most part) sympathetic. There's Peter, the flannel-wearing home improvement specialist; Gerald, the baking nerd who just wants to measure his way to perfection; Hannah, the small-town girl with big dreams of celebrity; Stella, the former journalist who picked up baking obsessively for a year (who didn't over the pandemic?); Pradyumna, the laid-back tech millionaire looking to find a bigger purpose; and Lottie, the sweet grandmother with a secret agenda. Even without the mystery, this would be a fun cast to watch interact.

But Maxwell, like the reality-show producers she's writing about, has selected each backstory with care. As the story winds on, the contestants' experiences become more relevant to unwinding the mystery at hand. Each character has a specific role to play, a specific secret to uncover, a specific path to fulfill. Not only that, but each cast member finds the perfect partner to help them grow and heal. There aren't really red herrings - only big mysteries and smaller ones - which may throw some mystery fans off. Maxwell toes the line between believable and coincidental, and your enjoyment of the novel may rely on your willingness to suspend a bit of disbelief to enjoy some catharsis. (Today, I was looking for a cozy ending, so this was right up my alley.)

Closed-circle mystery crossed with reality-TV scandal

At its heart, The Golden Spoon is a classic closed-circle mystery. A large cast gathers together in an isolated country house, and then (eventually) a murder happens. Putting together the pieces involves uncovering long-lost secrets and deep-held grudges, until the cast discovers the truth. It's a tale as old as the Golden Age.

Here, there's the added layer of interpersonal complication from the setting in reality TV. This goes beyond the typical elimination drama, with Maxwell expanding to the more sordid elements of the genre. Who, if anyone, is sabotaging the bakes? Who's sleeping with whom? If you, like me, came for the promise of a wholesome Great British Bake-Off-like setting, this may be a bit off-putting. Certainly there's a bit of tension here - after all, if everything were fully friendly, there wouldn't be any mystery to solve.

Maxwell tries to solve this by going deeper with her cast. The drama goes beyond the surface, and solving it means confronting the fears and challenges that have limited thus far. By the time the story is over, the last has grown, not only as bakers but as people. It parallels the growth that the best wholesome competition shows enable. (Amaury Guichon's School of Chocolate is a particularly great example of this trope.) And so, despite the gritty revelations inherent in a good mystery, we end up at a pretty wholesome spot.

Reader's notes and rating (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

The Golden Spoon is a warm hug of a book, a great read for a rainy day with a mug of cocoa. The plot races along, and while some of the major beats are guessable about halfway through the story, it's worth sticking around for the ending. For those who like cozy mysteries and baking competitions, this is a no-brainer. But for my more skeptical friends - or those who don't want to think about reality-TV scandals in their favorite wholesome baking show - this one may be a pass. Personally, I'll definitely read this again when it releases in March next year - like a great bake, it's warm and comforting.

Read this if...

- You love closed-circle mysteries, especially the scandal of manor-house mysteries
- You're a big fan of baking shows and don't mind the idea of scandalous inner workings
- You're more into the emotional arc of a story than the strict logic / you're ok with a few coincidences

Skip this if...
- You like complex, unpredictable mysteries - it's all about the surprise and the deduction
- You're a big fan of baking shows and don't want to think about any associated potential scandals
- Coincidences bother you / you're not in the mood to suspend your disbelief just a little

hank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the copy of The Golden Spoon. We follow six contestants at Bake Week and learn about their backgrounds and why they are trying to win. Who is sabotaging the bakes? What’s up with the creepy mansion where they all have to stay? Who is the murderer? If you are a fan of The Great British Bake Off, you will love this fun cozy mystery! If you want to be picky, there could have been more imagination in the bakes the contestants were required to make as well as what the judges said. Archie’s remarks sounded uncomfortably similar to Paul Hollywood and having the judges dislike rosewater will be very familiar to anyone that watches GBBO. The ending wrapup was cute but inconsequential
If you don’t expect shocking twists or thrills and are looking for a fun, well-crafted mystery you should try this book.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4

I’m a FACS teacher, so this was an especially fun read for me. Cooking, missing mothers, and murders just seem to go together. I look forward to more by this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader in exchange for my review.

As someone who has seen possibly every baking show created, the concept of this book was great! Before starting, I thought, “who would not want to live out a baking competition in the form of a book?”.

Well… think twice.

Perhaps it is my fault for having a preconceived notion that this would be a “knock your socks off” mystery that I have desperately been searching for. Possibly it fell flat for me because I was not expecting a cozy mystery. The execution was just not there. There was no real attachment to the characters (except the absolutely perfect Lollie), and I cannot stress enough how INCREDIBLY predictable the plot was.

I do not regret the reading simply because the concept of a baking competition in a book is something I have never found before. However, a month from now I cannot say I will have any recollection of what happened.

I enjoyed this book! I was actually surprised by the ending, and I liked the conceit of the show and book. Some threads seemed a little worn, but for the most part, great read

The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell was a very entertaining murder mystery. Think "The Great British Bake Off" meets Lucy Foley. I enjoyed this book very much. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced e-galley.