3/5 stars
The Golden Spoon, by Jessa Maxwell (2023)
Oooh this was fun. I enjoyed this. A murder mystery that takes place at an American version of the Great British Bake Off?! Yes, please, and thank you.
Bake Week, set under a tent at the stately Vermont manor of host Betsy Martin, is in it's 10th season. Six bakers have descended to stay the week - or as long as they last in the competition - and see who will win The Golden Spoon. The producers have decided to shake things up some by hiring well-known chef Archie Morris as co-host - a Gordon Ramsey type who starred in a more American-esque version of a cooking show. But Bake Week is civilized, is kind and sweet and fun. That is, until suspicions arise that someone may be sabotaging bakes, and oh yes, of course, there's the little matter of a murder at the manor!
Betsy, "American's grandmother," is clearly fashioned after Mary Berry - except she's cold, a bit calculating, and is clearly hiding secrets in that huge mansion, as well as a nasty temper behind the grandmotherly veneer. Archie, I suppose, is brash Paul Hollywood. And I had fun thinking about each contestant and trying to match them up with a Bake Off equivalent. No one matches perfectly, of course, but the simple and kind architect/carpenter, Peter, made me think of Richard, for instance. There's also fastidious (read: obsessive compulsive) science teacher Gerald, young home-town-girl Hannah, beautiful former journalist Stella, and bored billionaire Pradyumna.
The story opens with a dead body being found, then jumps back in time to five days previously, when the contestants all arrived for Bake Week. We don't find out who has been murdered until near the end. The story is told from alternating perspectives including each contestant, Betsy, and Archie, which keeps it from feeling stale, and keeps the reader on their toes as information comes out slowly, and different people have different pieces of the puzzle.
Some revelations came as a surprise, some not so much, but overall this was an easy, breezy little read for Bake Off and murder mystery fans!
UP NEXT: Real Americans, by Rachel Khong
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