Great Escapes Book Tours Book Review: Vangie Vale & The Strangled Strudel

Vangie Vale & the Strangled Strudel (The Matchbaker Mysteries) by R.L. Syme

Vangie Vale & the Strangled Strudel (The Matchbaker Mysteries) 

Cozy Mystery 3rd in Series 

Setting - Montana Hummingbird Books (January 4, 2018) Print Length: 330 pages 

E-Book ASIN: B077GK124B

You could call it the straw that broke the camel’s back but it was more like a Montana forest timber. Just when Vangie Vale’s life was getting back to normal after a murder that rocked her little Rocky Mountain tourist town, she found herself in the middle of another murder... as the chief suspect.

Vangie stood shocked on the side of the curb as the sheriff stretched yellow crime scene tape around the front of her new bakery. Wouldn’t this make a lovely headline in next week’s paper: Local Baker Kills Parishioner With Pudding. Vangie’s road back to good graces as a part-time pastor was bumpy enough already. This would be a roadblock. Can't have that.

Review: I discovered this series last year, when the first book came out. This is book three in the series and they really keep getting better.

I love the humor in the Vangie books. This time Vangie is prime suspect in another murder. This one happened at her bakery, which makes her staying on the good side of her church people kind of hard.  I have to say that her parish didn't really play a huge part in this story.

A client died after eating a pudding at her bakery. That's just the start of it, as all things point to someone tampering with the pudding that Vangie made.

R.L. Syme has crafted a mystery that will definitely keep you guessing. Karin Dekker isn't a woman that you'd think anyone would want dead, but it seems like members of her family have a lot of secrets. Just when you think that it might be one character, another clue points you in another direction.

All this is going on and Vangie is getting phone calls from people from her past, that she doesn't want to hear from.

I love how the relationships are developing in this story. Vangie is dating Derek now and things are going smoothly for the most part. I also like the fact that Vangie and Sheriff Malcolm have a comfortable friendship too.

This is one cozy that you won't be able to put down.  Heck the other two books were just as good, so go grab them as well, because this series just gets better and better.

Rating: 5 flowers

R.L. Syme is a USA Today best-selling author of cozy mystery and small tow=n romance. She writes cozy culinary mysteries as R.L. Syme and small-town romance as Becca Boyd and. She is a writer of amateur sleuths worth loving and villains worth hating. Lover of fancy cheese, binge-watching, strawberries, and hope. A foodie and a baker herself, Becca grew up reading Nancy Drew mysteries passed on by her grandmother. A Tweeter and Pinner of things. She loves to connect with readers via social media.

Author Links: Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/bighopesbigheroes/ Facebook Fan Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BeccaNation/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/rlsyme/
Twitter: @beck_a_tron
 Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2xux8Ii Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6878258.R_L_Syme Purchase Link Amazon a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Review: Vangie Vale and the Murdered Macaron

  Vangie Vale and the Murdered Macaron (The Matchbaker Mysteries Book 1)

Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Montana
Hummingbird Books (July 21, 2017)
Paperback: 362 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1548024437
E-Book ASIN: B073ZLKBZT




Book Blurb: Small towns and gossip go together like flaky crust and sweet pastry cream. Between the police scanners, social media, and the senior center, it’s like a zombie apocalypse where the undead consume people’s secrets instead of living flesh.
But Vangie Vale wants nothing more than to stay under the radar…especially the police radar.

So when her new bakery becomes linked to a murder investigation, nothing will stop the gossip mill from connecting her to the dead body. Can’t have that.

Forced into the role of investigator, this new-in-town bakery owner has to become the very thing she hates–a nosy, small-town gossip–in order to clear her good name, and keep her face off the front page. But when a dating debacle brings her face-to-face with the Sheriff, Vangie can’t ignore the fact that one of her macarons was involved in a murder. She has to find the who-dun-it.

Review: Vangie Vale quickly became one of my favorite cozy mystery heroines. Vangie is a pastor and a baker and just an all around fabulous character.  Oh and she's more than just a baker, she's a Matchbaker. She can match you with the kind of food you want to eat. She also loves Sherlock. (Yay, me, too)

I loved this book so much I've already pre-ordered book 2 Vangie Vale and the Corpseless Custard, and I don't often do that.

This book was smartly written and by that I mean, Vangie isn't one who falls into trouble, though she does manage to get herself knee...nah neck deep in it several times. She's a wonderfully kind woman, especially when it comes to some rather unkind people, especially Henry's agent, Scarlet, who really doesn't deserve any kindness. (She became a little more easy to handle as the story went on)

I particularly liked the primary murder suspect, Henry. (Somehow I kept picturing looking like Ioan Gruffudd, though I'm not sure why because he's not blonde) He was a man with secrets, but he was really a lovable guy.

It is through these two people that Vangie gets drawn into the murder of a former citizen of Saint Agnes who has lots of secrets of her own.

There are so many twists and turns in the plot that it really keeps you on your toes guessing who the killer was, all the while hoping that Vangie doesn't get into trouble thus resulting her losing her job as pastor. She had some past issues that resulted in her being assigned to this small Montana town. (I wish her back story was more developed, so we really knew why her job was on the line.)

This is a great start to a new series.

Rating: 5 flowers