Curds of Prey: A Cheese Shop Mystery (Cheese Shop Mysteries, #3)

by Author Korina Moss

Yarrow Glen's favourite cheese shop, Curds & Whey, gets to be a part of the social event of the season: Summer Harrington’s wedding. Cheesemonger Willa Bauer is going all out for the wedding shower’s cheese bar. But the eagle-eyed Harrington family is proving to be a pain in her asiago. A last-minute tasting ends in disaster when one of Willa’s potential beaus, Roman, gets in a fight with the groom. Then the shower arrives, and while there’s anything but love in the air, there is plenty of cheese. Oh, and Roman... again. The day officially ends in disaster when Willa finds the groom - who also happens to be the mayor’s nephew - in the stable, dead as a dodo. At the mayor’s request, Willa must follow the trail of cheese curds to find a killer while continuing to walk a tightrope between two of Sonoma Valley’s most powerful families.

• ISBN10: 1250795230
• ISBN13: 9781250795236
• Publish Date: 17 April 2023
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: St Martin's Press
• Imprint: St. Martin's Paperbacks
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: http://melia.co.uk/page/detail/?k=9781250795236

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Curds of Prey is the third Cheese Shop cozy mystery by Korina Moss. Due out 28th March 2023 from Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in mass market paperback, audio, and ebook formats. 

This is an enjoyable small town shopfront cozy with an appealing protagonist, lots and lots of cheese trivia, and a well constructed puzzle to solve alongside shop owner Willa. She's catering a bridal shower (with lots of delicious cheeses) when the groom is found dead after a contretemps with Willa's erstwhile boyfriend (who also had some history with the bride).

As with most cozies, the emphasis is on the characters and the puzzle. The crimes are described off-scene and without being gruesome. The language is very clean. The series continues to improve, from a strong start, and the ensemble cast of Willa and her employees continue to mesh and become more three dimensional and believable (for a cozy). I'm looking forward to the next installments in the series.

Although it's the third book in the series, the plot arc and resolution are self-contained, and it works well enough as a standalone. With three books currently in the series, and a fourth announced for third quarter 2023, it would make a good choice for a cozy series binge or buddy read.

Four stars. Definitely one for shopfront cozy fans. It's full of esoteric cheese minutiae and I found a number of specialty cheeses I'm looking forward to trying. The author has also included intriguing cheese themed recipes for a goat cheese quesadilla and dutch oven pancake (Dutch baby)

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.