🎧 Listened in audio | 📢 Narrated by Jessica Taige
⏱ Duration: 6 hours | Genre: Cozy Mystery
🏷️ Publisher name: Self published
Book Blurb:
Izzy Harper gave up her critic’s pen for a kitchen and now runs Buttermilk Cafe in the coastal town of Windmere Cove, a year after a very public fall from grace. Her fresh start cracks when Spencer Reed, the vindictive critic who helped wreck her career, drops dead in her dining room with her food on his fork. Suddenly her name is in everyone’s mouth. To clear it, Izzy has to dig up a secret the town’s most powerful people want buried, while her golden retriever, Noodle, follows a trail the humans keep missing. Someone knows she is getting close.
Let’s talk about the book:
I only meant to listen for a few minutes as a teaser. The author had shared the advance audiobook with me the day before, and I’d told her I wouldn’t be able to get to it right away. Then the story gripped me, and the next thing I knew I had finished the whole thing and was left wanting more.
Izzy Harper traded her critic’s pen for comfort food and now runs Buttermilk Cafe in the coastal town of Windmere Cove. Then the vindictive critic who helped destroy her career drops dead in her dining room, with her food on his fork. That makes her the obvious suspect, and she has to clear her name.
I am IN LOVE with Izzy, and especially Noodle. Izzy is smart, but her golden retriever does the real heavy lifting. He’s the reason the murder gets solved at all. (Girl, follow your dog’s lead!) Izzy is just as cool, though. Detective Bell and Max round out a cast I loved spending time with, and the recipes with emotional names had me giggling. It has everything I want from a cozy: a cafe, a seaside town, comfort food, and a mystery that never gets too dark.
Jessica Taige’s narration is a highlight. Her voice carries a smile in the lighter moments and shifts to real seriousness in the heavier ones, which made the emotion of every scene easy to follow. The feelings she gives Izzy come across as genuine, and I enjoyed every minute of her performance.
Two things kept it from five stars. Izzy’s body language is repetitive: her palm pressing flat on a surface at significant moments happens several times, and after a while I could predict it. Some suspects are also cleared and then brought back into the mix, which makes it hard to know which eliminations to trust in a fair-play mystery. The ending didn’t fully work for me either, because a final gesture from one character felt out of step with how he was established throughout the book.
What has me excited is that the book plants hints of a secret society, a link to Izzy’s family, and some intriguing science-flavored details. I’m very curious where the author takes them. I’m also wondering whether a love triangle is brewing among Izzy, Max, and Detective Bell.
I’d give it five stars for the joy of it if I could. I loved my time with Izzy and Noodle, and I can’t wait for the next adventure. Recommended for cozy mystery fans, food-centered stories, and anyone who likes a dog sidekick who is smarter than the humans.
Would I recommend it?
If I could, I would hand Murder at Buttermilk Cafe five stars for the joy of it alone. A cafe, a small coastal town, Izzy, and a golden retriever named Noodle who is smarter than every human in Windmere Cove made this a book I smiled through. Some repeated body-language habits and a shaky ending kept it from perfect, but I am already excited to go back. Recommended for cozy mystery fans who like sleuthing served with comfort food, and for anyone who trusts a dog’s instincts. The audiobook releases October 6, so mark your calendar.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
What to do next? Here are some ideas…
1. Curiosity Thrilled the Cat by Sofie Kelly
Your favorite pets-with-opinions series starts here, with two cats who pick their own mysteries the way Noodle picks his trail.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
2. Dog On It by Spencer Quinn
A dog who is smarter than the humans around him and does the real detective work, which is exactly Noodle’s energy.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
3. Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson
If the food and the recipes were your favorite part, this is the caterer-sleuth series that put comfort food and murder on the same menu.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
4. Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs
Another coastal town, another business owner pulled into a murder, and a tea shop dog along for the ride.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
5. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
A bakery, a small town and a murder that stays gentle, for when you want more of that same cozy comfort.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
Dog Sidekick Court Is Now in Session
Noodle just outsmarted an entire town. So tell me, who is the best animal sidekick you have ever met in a cozy mystery? And did you ever notice one tiny habit in a book (like a palm pressed flat on a table) and then not be able to unsee it? Drop your answers in the comments.
Book links
Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below. These sites work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your book orders. #SupportLocal
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary
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