Bake, Borrow, and Steal

by Ellie Alexander

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Bake, Borrow, and Steal is the is the fourteenth Bakeshop cozy mystery by prolific author Ellie Alexander. Released 28th Dec 2021 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's imprint, it's 288 pages and is available in mass market paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This installment sees the crew at Torte gearing up for a big show at SOMA to coordinate with a Shakespeare exhibit. Besides chocolate sculptures, they'll be preparing and serving a full Elizabethan feast for the exhibition audience. It doesn't take long until theft and murder enter stage left and in addition to planning and executing a flawless feast, Jules and the crew are solving crimes.

The plotting, characterization, and dialogue are representative of the genre; lighthearted, somewhat over-the-top, and used to move the narrative along. It's not a realistic procedural. There's no gritty unpleasantness, no brutality (even the violence is mostly off-scene), no blatant sexual aspects, and the language is squeaky clean and used appropriately. Although this is the 14th book in the series, it works fine as a standalone.

For fans of the genre, it's a well written and very pleasant diversion. For readers who enjoy this Bakeshop series, I can heartily recommend the author's Sloan Krause brewing mysteries. She has either a truly impressive grasp of baking, brewing, and coffee culture or she's got experts on tap to consult for her background research. Lots of "foodie" fun to be found in both series. With so many books, it's a great candidate for a long-weekend or vacation binge read.

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