Mummified Meringues

Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series, Book 10

By: Leighann Dobbs

Narrated by: Hollis McCarthy

USA Today Best Seller

Murder hits a little too close to home for bakery owner Lexy Baker when a grim discovery is made in Jack's - her homicide detective husband - basement.

With Jack as the main suspect, Lexy has to turn up the heat and find the real killer while still trying to whip up the perfect meringue cookie recipe for the Brook Ridge Falls Desserts contest. Normally, she would enlist the aid of Nans, her amateur detective grandmother. Except...

Nans has a secret and is uncustomarily disinterested in investigating. Not to be daunted, Lexy turns to her iPad-toting posse of grandma sleuths who help her sift through the clues in an investigation that keeps dishing up the most unlikely suspects.

When a surprising twist causes Lexy to suspect those closest to her, it makes her wonder if some things from the past aren't better left alone.

©2014 Leighann Dobbs Publishing (P)2019 Leighann Dobbs Publishing

The narrator was excellent!

This was a real whodunnit. You will have to read to find out who did it.

Moral relativism in action is key to the plot.

Narration is very good. Easy to follow. Characters are sympathetic. Tone is a lighthearted and entertaining farce. However, the premise depends on collusion and lieing to law enforcement to cover crimes, justified by the fact that nice people were involved and admitting to the crimes would cause disruption to their nice lives.

SPOILER: In the end, the nice people do admit their "crimes," but escape legal consequences by still more lies. The wrap up to the story continues this pattern by protecting a scary villain, a contract assassin, from exposure and prosecution. The cover up is explained away because this criminal has now also become "nice."

It's an entertaining, comedic, cosy mystery. I will not read this author again, because moral relativism is not acceptable to me. It made me sad to see no value placed on basic honesty.