Cherry Slice
When Kenny Thorpe, a contestant on Expose TV’s Big Blubber, the hot new celebrity weight-loss show, is murdered on live television in front of 3 million viewers, the case seems pretty watertight. After all, everyone saw Martin do it – didn’t they?
Cherry Hinton knows there’s more to this than meets the eye. As an investigative reporter, she went undercover on dating show Caravan of Love… but after getting in too deep with one of the other contestants, she was caught knickerless in front of the nation. Humiliated, fired, and heartbroken, she has fled to Brentwood, where she opens a cake shop, and tries to forget all about Expose.
Until Kenny Thorpe’s sister walks into her shop with a letter that turns Cherry’s world upside down. Is Martin innocent? How is infamous gangster Leon Solent involved? Is Expose to blame, and is there a killer still on the loose? Cherry is the only one in a position to find out.
Series: A Cherry PI Mystery – Book 1
Author: Jennifer Stone
Genre: Cozy Mystery/
Publisher: Farrago Books
Page Count: 320
On Sale April 2, 2020
Rating: 
From Farrago Books comes a new cozy mystery, Cherry Slice, written by Jennifer Stone.
From the beginning, I had issues with this cozy book. I did not like the characters, any of them. None of them seem to care about much of anything; none were overly memorable. Even the suspects were out for themselves with a constant need to be validated in one form or another. The locations weren’t described well, so anyone not from Essex would have no idea where the famous celebrity shops were or where the action took place.
It was fairly obvious who the killer was almost from the beginning. Unfortunately, reality TV is not an original theme and has been done multiple times, and much better than in this cozy. I am not even sure Cherry Slice qualifies as a cozy as it borders on vulgarity most of the time. I found no humor in this story and took offense at the continuous use of the fat-shaming or prejudice names given to characters, especially those who were different or dead. I know this was meant to be humorous, but with the world we live in, it was merely offensive. In all, I had a difficult time finishing this book or finding anything redeeming within its pages. I cannot recommend this book to any readers. If you like your cozy books to have mystery, enjoyable characters, and a writer with a flair for storytelling, I would suggest you look elsewhere.
I am happy to recommend series that are quality reads such as Leslie Meier’s intriguing series “A Lucy Stone Mystery” or perhaps T. C. LoTempio’s pet shop based series “A Purr N Bark Pet Shop Mystery”.
About the Author:
Jennifer Stone was born in Essex and spent her formative years living within its borders and enjoying the delights of the multiple night clubs and alcopop swigging opportunities available. After a stint in North Wales acquiring a degree and a further spell in Leeds, training to be a teacher, she returned to the south of England to teach English in a variety of schools. She is currently head of English at a boarding school in Suffolk and has just completed her MA in Creative Writing (Crime) at UEA. She lives with her wife and their small son.
Represented by: The Blake Friedmann Literary Agency
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