It's National Chocolate Month and Pirate Week in Crystal Cove. The Cookbook Nook is actively involved in all of the local festivities. Meanwhile, the Chocolate Cookbook Club is meeting at The Cookbook Nook. One of Crystal Cove's own celebrities, published cookbook author and candy maker Coco Chastain, is the guest of honor. However, Jenna Hart, proprietor and co-owner of The Cookbook Nook, soon has her hands full when a murder is committed and Coco is the prime suspect. Will Jenna and her assistant, Bailey Bird, uncover the real culprit?

Ah... pirates and chocolate mixed together in one of my favorite culinary mystery series. What could be better? I absolutely love the various pirate festivities in Crystal Cove, never mind the mystery behind the missing doubloons! Crystal Cove is one of those unique little tourist towns that you wish was real so you could roam the streets yourself, visiting each one of the various shops and sampling all the mouthwatering treats.

Daryl Wood Gerber's fourth entry in the Cookbook Nook Mystery series is the perfect place to dive into this fun and tasty series if you haven't yet. Daryl Wood Gerber gives readers enough background on the various relationships between the characters so that new readers can fall in love with them just like those of us who have been reading since the first book, FINAL SENTENCE. However, I suspect that once readers get a taste for the lively happenings in Crystal Cove, they'll want more of this quirky tourist town.

Daryl Wood Gerber once again whets our appetite with the most scrumptious sounding recipes while introducing us to some new characters and a very witty mystery. I have to admit I missed seeing as much of Jenna's Aunt Vera but the antics of the two cats, Tigger and Hershey, more than make up for her lesser role. If you like culinary cozy mysteries packed with all sorts of yummy sounding treats, don't hesitate to try FUDGING THE BOOKS.