Cozy Mystery Monday: Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns
A Christilisa Book Review
I’ve always been a fan of books that include food. It just feels so homey and down to earth; makes the characters more relatable. Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns, is no different except it adds in a Black woman protagonist. Madison Montgomery is a spoiled entitled military brat who loves designer clothes, shoes, etc. She just so happens to inherit a house and bakery from her great aunt, in which she hasn’t seen since Madison was a baby. Needing an escape, Madison decides to embrace the small town life after being left at the altar by her doctor fiancé. She wanted to continue to be taken care of but being in New Bison helps her realize that she is smart and capable of doing things on her own and making her own decisions. Which she learns just in time to deal with a murder, a 250 lb prize winning mastiff named Baby, and a bakery. She makes new friends and joins them in solving the crimes in New Bison with the help of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. Because of course you can’t solve mysteries without some help along the way, even if they are fictional sleuths.
The baked goods in the novel are the icing on the cake. They talk about buttery, flaky 🥐; award winning chocolate cake; how to make the best scrambled eggs; apple turnovers and thumbprint cookies. I’m just sad that we only get three recipes and none of them are the chocolate cake or croissant. However, we do get the Apple turnover, thumbprint cookies, and lemon zucchini bread (which is only mentioned in passing).
After reading this book in three days, here is what I’ve taken away:
People can change only if you let them and give them the opportunity to change.
Small towns can be fun and charming. I grew up in a small town and it’s something nice about everything being close together and knowing your neighbors.
A Black woman not knowing who a First Lady is in the church is mind boggling even if she is fictional. (Maybe that’s the Southern church going girl in me).
I dislike that some of the characters have ambiguous descriptions. It’s hard to paint a picture of who the characters really are.
Baked goods can solve almost anything.
Anyone can learn to cook or bake as long as they have a good teacher and are open to making mistakes to get to perfection. I will say, no baked good is perfect but it should come pretty darn close.
Some questions in the book are never answered. I suppose that’s how life is so I can’t be too upset about that.
This book had me hooked from the first page and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series ( the chocolate cake recipe will be in the next book!). I also have to mention that this book has a Black protagonist who is Ivy League educated along with the guy she is diggin. As a Black woman, we don’t really find cozy mysteries where we are the main character. If we read and buy more of these types of books, we’ll get more writers and publishers to create them! It is important that we celebrate all types of people and the shenanigans they can get into.
You can pre-order the book at the following retailers:
If you’ve never read a cozy mystery before, this is a good one to start with. Valerie Burns has been in the writing game along time and her books never disappoint.
Until next time,
Xoxo~Christilisa