Published by Penguin
Publication Date: 14th September 2023
Book Description:
For six amateur bakers, competing in Bake Week is a dream come true.
But for the show's famous host, Betsy Martin, it's more than a competition. It's her legacy.
As she welcomes contestants to her ancestral home, Grafton Manor, she's excited to discover who will have
what it takes win the ultimate prize: The Golden Spoon.
Quickly, though, things start to go wrong...
The contestants are jittery - they've heard strange noises in the manor at night.
Betsy is irate - a new co-host has arrived, and he's out for her spotlight.
Then, the sabotage begins. At first, it's small. Sugar switched for salt. A hob turned too high.
But when a body is discovered, everyone becomes a suspect.
Because for someone at Bake Week it's time to settle old scores . . .
My Thoughts:
I bought this book just as the latest series of The Great British Bake-Off aired on TV. The setting, contestants and the challenges created for them by fictional host Betsy Martin perfectly reflect the reality show here in the UK, despite the book being set in America. But that's where the similarity ends. Sabotage, high-running tensions between the show's staff and ultimately a mysterious murder certainly aren't par for the course on our TV screens.
I very much enjoyed the feel of this book, however knowing that there will be a murder right from the outset kind of spoiled it for me - I was constantly waiting for a body to be discovered and for the reveal of who had come to an unfortunate end. The fact that there is so much of the book to get through, whilst enjoyable in its own right, just took far too long for me.
The background story felt rather predictable, so much so that I was disappointed that there wasn't more meat to the story - a bit more scandal perhaps. I'm wondering whether I'm just not enough of a cosy crime reader to really soak up more of the atmosphere. I was craving a bit more punch to the tale.
The concept of this book was great: Bake-off with a slice of crime. I just didn't need to have it spelled out for me what that crime would be. The marketing could have been better executed in order for the reader to have a better experience - it felt like they provided their own spoilers. But hey, that's just my opinion. The characters worked well, an eclectic mix as we tend to get on the TV, the personalities of the presenters and contestants were perfectly drawn, yet the overall finish of the book was off somehow for me.
Sadly, no show-stoppers here for me.
About the Author:
Jessa Maxwell is a cosy mystery fiction author, best known for her novel The Golden Spoon. However, this is not her first rodeo. In another life she is well-known for the adorable characters she creates under the name Jessica Olien. Before she became a writer of fiction, she used to work as a journalist and has lived all over the world in such places as the Netherlands, Thailand and Egypt.
The Golden Spoon is her first venture into adult fiction writing and was published in 2023.
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