Review: Masher of Ceremonies

MASHER OF CEREMONIES by Victoria Hamilton
Fiction, Cozy Mystery, 13th in series
4****

BLURB: A fundraiser for the local historical society nearly goes bust when someone fills the coffers with blackmail and murder . . . The annual Tea With the Queen fundraiser always makes for a festive weekend in Queensville, drawing visitors from far and wide and giving local shops a welcome boost. This year, vintage kitchenware collector Jaymie Müller is running the event, and she’s got her hands full organizing old and new volunteers along with a surly catering crew. Then her master of ceremonies tells her he’s being blackmailed but can’t go to the police, and before Jaymie can sort that out she stumbles over a dead body at the tea. Despite the demands of keeping the event up and running, Jaymie can’t help puzzling over the murder. There’s no concrete evidence linking the cretin behind the blackmail scheme to the dead body, so she begins questioning everyone connected to the blackmail, hoping to expose the killer. And just as she discovers a web of relationships that leads her to the culprit, she realizes that the Tea With the Queen may have been a royal pain, but outwitting a blackmailer and catching a killer may be the death of her . . .Includes a vintage recipe!

THOUGHTS: Jaymie Muller is trying to get her new store ready to open, help at her sister’s store, raise a child, and manage the Tea with the Queen weekend–just the biggest event of the season! She has to wrangle Nigel (owner of house where the event will take place), the volunteers, the chefs, and everything else and pray it doesn’t rain. What she doesn’t count on is a blackmailer photo-bombing the event and a dead body on the last day.

Even though the pace was a little slow, there were lots of suspects for the reader to check out. I will say, though, that the murder didn’t happen until almost half-way through the book, so there’s a lot of buildup beforehand. Actually, when you find out who the victim is, you might be surprised.

The characters are well done, especially Jaymie. And I loved that there is a descriptive “Cast of Characters” at the front of the book so you know who’s who and what the relationships are. That really helps if you haven’t read the other books in the series. What I found unique about the story was that it was German in flavor – the names of many of the characters and the recipe at the end. Very different from the usual small-town flavor.

Still, even though I found it a slow read, I did enjoy it and the ending was satisfying. I really liked Jaymie and her mother-bear attitude with her step-daughter and her organizational skills.

Recommended.