Book Review and Giveaway: A Study in Chocolate (Bean to Bar Mystery #5) by Amber Royer

A STUDY IN CHOCOLATE
Bean to Bar Mysteries Book 5
by
AMBER ROYER
Cozy Culinary Mystery / Women Sleuths / Romance 
Publisher: Golden Tip Press
Date of Publication: January 27, 2023
Number of Pages: 260 pages 
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Felicity Koerber’s bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand is expanding, as it has become a gathering spot for the community, despite having been the scene of multiple murders. Artists she met while doing a chocolate sculpture are now working out of the shop. So when Felicity is invited to tea by an eccentric art collector, she’s intrigued, especially when she gets asked to pose for a portrait done with chocolate on chocolate. Only, where there is a murder the next day at the same historic house where the tea was held, one of Felicity’s artist friends becomes the main suspect.
When the killer threatens that unless Felicity unravels the murder, one of her two love interests will be the next victim, she finds herself unwittingly at the center of a puzzle with a Sherlock Holmes-obsessed murderer who wants to be the next Moriarty – and wants to cast Felicity as Sherlock.
Felicity starts finding unexpected connections between her friends and acquaintances and must deal with the idea that someone who knows her is a murderer. At the same time, she has to keep her business running, despite construction dust and unruly customers – and an unexpected order for thousands of truffles.
Satchmo the retired police-dog-turned-therapy dog returns to help her sniff out a few clues, and the kidnapping of Ruffles, the quirky artist’s cat, helps lead Felicity into the puzzle. Can Felicity solve it in time to protect the people she cares about from becoming additional victims?

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Felicity Koerber just can’t get away from murder, can she? In the fifth installment in Amber Royer’s Bean to Bar Mystery series, Felicity finds herself drawn into a mystery worthy of (and inspired by?) Sherlock Holmes himself. The book’s title is a nod to Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, and as usual, a book is involved in the mystery.

Now people don’t just come to Felicity’s chocolate shop for the delightful confections she sells. She’s got murder groupies. Her reputation as a murder magnet is heightened when she’s drawn into a mystery surrounding the death of the historic Wobble House’s new owner, someone Logan had once arrested. The killer is playing a Holmesian game with Felicity, taunting her with clues and a dare to solve the crime like Moriarty did with Sherlock. And if she can’t solve the crime fast enough? Then someone very close to her will die.

I love the literary angle in this book. The Sherlock tie-in is a treat for any mystery lover, and the threat of another death – one that matters to Felicity – adds a lot of tension to her efforts to figure out whodunnit. It was no easy solve for me, either. Royer deftly gives us one suspect after another, only to turn around and show us why that person couldn’t possibly be the killer. She kept me guessing!

Felicity is still trying to decide between Arlo and Logan. I honestly don’t know which of them I’m rooting for anymore. And even though the deadline she set herself to decide is drawing nigh, I’m not sure Felicity is ready to choose yet, either!

As an added bonus, just this weekend we finally got together with family for a very belated Christmas celebration. One of my gifts was Royer’s cookbook, There are Herbs in My Chocolate (affiliate link – you order and you get a cool cookbook, and I make a little money!). This one has been on my list for ages, so I am thrilled to finally have a copy! Maybe I’ll try the recipes out and share some here when I read and review her next book.

Delightful characters, chocolates that sound scrumptious, a twisty mystery with literary flair – it’s another five-star Royer read for me. Give me more!

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Amber Royer writes the Chocoverse comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series and the Bean to Bar Mysteries. She is also the author of Story Like a Journalist: A Workbook for Novelists, which boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan involving over 100 worksheets to build a comprehensive story plan for your novel. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach.
Amber and her husband live in the DFW Area, where you can often find them hiking or taking landscape/architecture/wildlife photographs. If you are very nice to Amber, she might make you cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes, of course! Amber blogs about creative writing technique and all things chocolate.
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GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!
ONE WINNER:
Signed copy of A Study in Chocolate +
a chocolate bar from French Broad Chocolate.
(US only; ends midnight, CST, 3/10/23)

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6 Responses to Book Review and Giveaway: A Study in Chocolate (Bean to Bar Mystery #5) by Amber Royer

  1. Leslie says:

    That is a cool cookbook. I don’t have it (yet?) but Amber spoke to my Woman’s Club group and made Lavender Hot Chocolate and Meatballs with cacao. oh my!

  2. Amber Royer says:

    Thank you for this lovely review! And I’m excited that you have the cookbook. It’s the inspiration for Carmen’s cooking style in the series. In Book 6, Carmen will be doing the cake for Autumn’s wedding, and Enrique handling the catering (as implied in A Study in Chocolate). He’s going to decide to try a few savory chocolate-included recipes, given the crowd he’s catering for. So he’ll be pulling influences from the cookbook too!

  3. Just love this review and that you have the cookbook as a bonus tie-together! So fun. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

  4. How can you resist a mystery revolving around chocolate? lol This sounds like fun, thanks for sharing.

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