Murder at the Blueberry Festival
After a career on Wall Street, Lindsey is making a different kind of dough in a pretty lakeside village. The upcoming blueberry festival, including the pie-eating contest her bakery is hosting, is the highlight of the summer. But soon, Beacon Harbor runs into a patch of trouble, pranks, and a dead Viking.
A local real estate agent gets pranked. A parade float gets pelted with water balloons. It’s all laughed off until the stunts start escalating and looking more like sabotage. As the event becomes a debacle complete with rampaging goats, Lindsey’s sweetheart, a former SEAL, starts investigating. But the juicy mystery takes a bitter turn when a man dressed up as a Viking is found dead in a boat, and it’s no longer mischief but murder.
The Details
Series: A Beacon Bakeshop Mystery – Book #3
Author: Darci Hannah
Genre/Category: Cozy –Amateur Sleuth/Culinary
Publisher: Kensington Cozies
ISBN: 1496731743
Page Count: 352
Rating: 
The Review
Blueberries are everywhere! And a blueberry festival sounds tasty. Until someone decides what this festival needs are pranks and a dead Viking. Murder at the Blueberry Festival is a fun-filled mystery with a great plot and the latest addition to the “ Beacon Bakeshop Mystery” series.
When Lindsey volunteers to run the pie eating contest and volunteers her boyfriend to run an event at this year’s blueberry festival, she never suspected that it would turn into crazy pranks and murder. But before the festival even gets underway, the prankster hits, and everyone starts looking over their shoulders, wondering who will be next. There are water balloons, stolen real estate signs plastered all over a lawn, goats ruining Lindsey’s mom’s fashion show and a vendors food tent and rerouting the event Rory is in charge of so that the runners end up in the lake. The fun stops when a man shows up in a Viking ship dead, and people fear what will happen next. Lindsey and Rory investigate and what they find shocks them beyond belief.
Characters in this series are delightfully normal. Lindsey’s dog Welly is by far the star of the show. The location works on every level, and having spent some time in Michigan; I have fond memories brought back by the author’s descriptions. The pranks are at first light-hearted, a bit mean but still on the funny side. The murder is a head-scratcher and will take the reader’s sleuthing abilities to the max. Once the killer is revealed, there will be moments when readers will feel as though they have been kicked in the gut. The death of an old man, dressed like a Viking and found in his own handmade Viking ship, is original; I can honestly say I haven’t read anything like it before in a cozy.
Murder at the Blueberry Festival is a charming who-dun-it with moments of inspiration. Readers will enjoy imagining the pranks and all of the blueberry desserts. The recipes are sumptuous, but then I love blueberry anything! The death of the Viking will give readers pause for reflection. Is there a good way to die, honestly? Who is to say that being put afloat on a Viking ship and sent out to sea in a flaming finale isn’t the best way to reach Valhalla? I believe readers will enjoy this book immensely and turn the last page craving a blueberry muffin.
The Author
Cozy mystery author, Darci Hannah, is a native of the Midwest and currently lives in a small town in Michigan. Darci is a lifelong lover of the Great Lakes, a natural wonder that inspires many of her stories. When Darci isn’t baking for family and friends, hiking with her furry pals, Ripley and Finn, or concocting her next cozy mystery, she can be found wandering around picturesque lakeside villages with her hubby, sampling baked goods, and breaking for coffee more often than she should. In addition to cozy mysteries, Darci’s other passion is writing historical fiction.
I recommend other books from this author, such as book one in the “A Beacon Bakeshop Mystery” series, Murder At The Beacon Bakeshop, or from the “A Very Cherry Mystery” series, Cherry Scones & Broken Bones.
Represented by: The Spencerhill Literary Agency
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