Book Review: The Christmas Cookie Killer

Author: Livia J. Washburn
Title: The Christmas Cookie Killer
Publisher: Obsidian
Publish Date: Sept 30, 2010
Book Blurb: Christmas comes to Weatherford, Texas, in this delicious new entry in the national bestselling series.
Yuletide is here—and retired teacher cum amateur sleuth Phyllis Newsom looks forward to finishing up this unlucky year. But she won’t be hanging up her apron just yet—because this year’s Christmas bake-off is going to be cutthroat.
Phyllis would like to think she’s entering the Christmas cookie contest for the fun of it—but that’s not exactly true. She can’t imagine anyone beating her snowflake-shaped lime sugar cookies. Then, during her annual Christmas cookie exchange, Phyllis heads over to the elderly Mrs. Simmons’s home and finds her dead, in a pile of lime sugar cookies. But with a number of names on Santa’s naughty list, this case may be a hard cookie to crumble.

Review: This Fresh Baked Mystery was such a fun read! I loved the fact that the characters weren't your traditional hero and heroine. All the main characters were well into their 60s. Most of them were widows or widowers but all of them spunky and there isn't a single one that really felt grandma-ish.

Phyllis was the more traditional lady but she was the one out there solving the crimes, more so than any of the detectives working to solve the murder of her neighbor, Agnes.

Livia's characters really come to life and Weatherford is the perfect small town that has just enough secrets to leave the reader really wondering who killed Agnes. It seems like everyone has a motive, because everyone, in this case, Agnes, is not exactly the way they seem.

This is one mystery that really keeps you guessing about the whodunit until you get to the last few pages. It definitely makes you want to check out the other books in the series as well.  Phyllis, Carolyn, Sam and Eve, easily worm their way into your heart. These are characters you feel like you really know while you are reading. Plus who could resist a sleuthing grandma? It's like Murder She Wrote, but with cooking ladies.

Oh and Livia shares Phyllis and Co.'s recipes at the end of the book!

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