"Making hats in a Renaissance Village shouldn't be so dangerous"
Reviewed by Leanne Davis
Posted October 27, 2011
Mystery Cozy
Jessie Morton returns to the Renaissance Faire Village to
continue her work toward her Ph.D. At first, it looks
like she will be unable to find an apprenticeship but then
Chase, her main man and the Village Bailiff, finds her work
in the hat shop. She learns a lot from Andre, a man who
once worked in Hollywood. Andre has some fabulous stories
to share and his abilities with hats are inspiring. When Cesar, one of the Three Chocolatiers, is found dead in
the chocolate shop, Jessie must utilize her detecting skills
to discover the killer. As she and Chase investigate, they
discover that Andre and Cesar were in competition for the
favors of one of the ladies of the village. Cesar was quite
a philanderer and the more they learn, the more motives they
discover for the village inhabitants. Add in a series of knights to the village
and the jealousy they inspire, Chase disappearing for hours
at night, and the usual high jinks that take place in the
village and the reader will have a grand time. This is an
entertaining read with a well-crafted plot. The identity of
the killer was a surprise. Jessie has some tense moments
with the secrets that Chase is keeping until she discovers
the truth. Jessie and her matchmaking skills will also be
in demand. Readers of the series will not be disappointed. New readers
will want to glom the backlist so they don't miss a single
minute of Jessie and her crazy life.
SUMMARY
Working as a hat-maker in the Renaissance Faire Village is
pretty sweet for Jessie Morton-until one of the fair's
chocolatiers is found drowned in a vat of chocolate in his
shop. Now Jessie must sort through a long list of knaves,
knights, and wenches who might have wanted to see the
chocolatier double-dipped and dead.
ExcerptA little after two am, Chase’s radio—one of the few
modern day devices allowed in the Village while visitors
were there, went off. They needed him at one of the shops.
"What is it?" I whispered as he got dressed.
"I’m not sure. Security found something strange over at
the Three Chocolatiers shop."
"I want to come." I got up too and searched in the dark
for my hastily tossed shorts and sandals. "Maybe they’re
giving out chocolate samples and it caused a riot."
"It might be better if you stay here. It could be
anything. A few weeks ago, one of the goats got into
Fabulous Funnels. It was a mess."
"Like I said—chocolate all over the place. How bad
can it be?"
Chase gave in gracefully. We walked across the dark,
still Village where most people were asleep, dreaming about
what lunacy they would get into tomorrow. The lamps glowed
softly showing us the way. As though we were at one with the
sleeping houses, we were quiet too.
Two security guards were waiting outside the chocolate
shop. The front door was open beneath three crossed swords
symbolizing the Chocolatiers’ coat of arms. There was a
faint light coming from inside.
I nudged Chase with my elbow. "See? What did I tell you?
Plenty of chocolate to be had."
He didn’t respond, turning to the security men instead.
"What’s up? It better be more than an open door."
"You have to see it," one of them, a man I didn’t
recognize, blurted out.
"The door was open, like Fabulous Funnels." The other
security guard shrugged as though that statement explained
it all. "We just walked inside. We didn’t know what was
going on. We didn’t touch anything."
I noticed they stayed outside as Chase and I went in. I
wasn’t sure if that was because what happened wasn’t serious
enough to call Chase and they were scared to come in or
because they’d already seen whatever it was and didn’t want
to see it again.
Chocolate was indeed everywhere. Not really the edible
variety unless you like licking it off the floors, walls,
and windows. There have been days when I would’ve done that
for a chocolate fix, but that wasn’t the bad thing about
this scene.
The Chocolatiers blended their own chocolate mixture (a
dark secret) in a huge, stainless steel vat behind the main
counter. In the dim light, I could see someone bending over
the vat—a large, red, plumed hat covering him.
"It’s Cesar," Chase said. "I guess he had a little too
much to drink before he came to make chocolate."
"What a waste!" It was all I could think of—until
Chase tried to wake the eldest chocolatier. Cesar fell
backwards out of the vat, splashing up another few gallons
of liquid chocolate across us and the rest of the shop. He
was naked beneath his extravagant, plumed hat, and covered
in chocolate.
He was also dead.
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