Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Hard Dough Homicide is the second book in the Spice Island shopfront cozy mystery series by Olivia Matthews. Released 23rd May 2023 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's imprint, it's 304 pages and 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. Ebooks with interactive formats are so handy.
This is a fun and really readable series. It's a breezy fun shopfront cozy with an appealing and intelligent protagonist, a baker, working with her family (and solving the occasional murder/mystery).
As with most cozies, the emphasis is on the characters and the puzzle. It's a well constructed and easy to read cozy, with clean language and no over the top violence. The addition of a likable protagonist and her family with roots in the West Indies gives the whole a Caribbean flair. It's nice to find a new series with well written PoC in central roles with positive representations. Lyndsay's family are adorable and fun to read and their relationship with one another is sweet and fun.
The mystery and resolution are self-contained in this volume, so it works fine as a standalone. It's not at all derivative, but fans of Sue Minix, Wendy Meadows, and Ellie Alexander will likely enjoy this series also.
Four stars. Book 3 is due out from the same publisher late fourth quarter 2023. It would be a good choice for a mini-binge or buddy read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.