Snow, Secrets & Stew: Reviewing The Cold Case and the Corpse by Debra Sennefelder

Read Time: 4 minutes

📱📖 Read on Kindle
📃 275 pages
⏱ Read time: 5 hours
🏷️ Publisher: Beyond the Page
🎁 ARC provided by NetGalley
🧁 Genre: Cozy Mystery

Book Blurb:

Food blogger Hope Early heads to a luxurious snowy mountain wellness retreat to level-up her career right before her debut cookbook drops. What she gets instead? A fraudulent life coach with a deadly past, a fresh corpse, and a blizzard that locks everyone in with the killer. As secrets unravel and fake identities crumble, Hope must sift through lies, grudges, and gourmet meals to expose a murderer before the snow melts… or before she becomes the next victim. Includes mouthwatering recipes!

Let’s Talk About The Book

This is my first dip into Debra Sennefelder’s food blogger mysteries, and even though it’s book eight, I never felt lost. The relationships and callbacks to earlier installments are sprinkled in lightly, blending seamlessly into the current plot so new readers can catch the rhythm quickly.

Hope Early is refreshingly grounded as a sleuth. She doesn’t dive into danger with reckless abandon or keep crucial clues to herself. She communicates, collaborates, and still manages to stay likable and curious. There’s something comforting about a main character who uses both common sense and community to solve crime. Her circle’s involvement feels organic, and their support system adds that warm, familiar vibe that cozy mystery fans live for. And the setting? Between the blizzard, the tension, the personalities clashing like mismatched snow boots, and the lingering cold case haunting the narrative, it all blends into a smooth, bingeable mystery. The locked-retreat-turned-snowbound-trap is deliciously blends And Then There Were None tension with Hallmark-level charm. Clues drop at the perfect pace, red herrings are tasty, and the reveal felt earned instead of pulled out of thin air.

Bonus: the recipes sprinkled throughout actually made me pause my Kindle to Google whether brown-butter sage cookies are real (they are, and I blame Hope for the 11 p.m. baking spiral. My only tiny gripe? I now have seven books to add to my Everest-sized TBR. Send help (and stretchy pants).

Would I recommend it?

If you love snowed-in mysteries, smart heroines who don’t play detective responsibly, and food descriptions that attack your diet, grab this. Perfect winter escape read that’ll make you glad you’re warm and murderer-free. Add The Cold Case and the Corpse to your TBR right now.

For the fans,

Following are similar books:

• The Uninvited Corpse by Debra Sennefelder
  Starting at the beginning of Hope Early’s journey lets you actually earn all those relationship beats that felt like carry-overs in book eight (like me). It keeps the same small-town, food-blogger energy and includes recipes, town drama, and a classic murder among neighbors.
• A Noodle Shop Mystery (starting with Death by Dumpling) by Vivien Chien
  If you’re already a fan of Hope Early and what you loved was the culinary + community combo, this series leans hard into food, family expectations, and amateur sleuthing around a noodle shop. Expect lots of comfort-carb content, modern-feeling characters, and mysteries that stay firmly in cozy territory.
• Cheese Shop Mysteries (starting with Cheddar Off Dead) by Korina Moss
  Closed-circle suspects, strong sense of place, and recipes. Plus, if cheese is your love language, this is basically a personality match. The tone is friendly and accessible, with the same “you can jump in mid-series but it’s more fun in order” feel.
• Bakeshop Mysteries (starting with Meet Your Baker) by Ellie Alexander
  For atmospheric cozies, this series is like being snowed into a bakery with gossip, murder, and pastries. It has rich descriptions, recurring character arcs, and that same balance of heart, community, and not-too-gruesome crime you enjoyed.
•  The Silver Spring Mysteries by Jodie Morgan
  Another culinary cozy mystery series with recipes, The Silver Spring Mysteries fits right beside The Cold Case and the Corpse on a foodie-mystery shelf. It blends community, comfort food, and crime-solving in a way that feels like a natural next read for fans of snowed-in or retreat-style cozies.

Perfect timing, honestly. I’m also running a freebie + Christmas giveaway on the first novella in The Silver Spring Mysteries, in collaboration with the author, so you can literally test-drive the series for zero dollars and see if it hits your cozy sweet spot. Think of it as an easy, no-commitment hop from Hope Early’s foodie, snow-dusted world into another delicious, recipe-laced mystery universe. Just with extra holiday sparkle.

Tea, Vows, and a Body! What Do You Say?

Do multiple POVs add depth for you, or pull you out of the story? And how much romance is too much romance in a cozy mystery? Let’s talk in the comments.

Book Links:

Consider purchasing your favorite books from local stores using the sites below. These sites work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your book orders. #SupportLocal

Indiebookstore.ca
Bookstore.org
Goodreads
Follow Debra Sennefelder for more about her books on her author page
Check out more books from Beyond The Page