There Is More Cooking In This Plot Than Just The Baking

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The Golden Spoon by Jessa Matthews was such a delight to read. For a lover of mysteries the only thing better than a mystery where the tension and climax are building as a storm brews in the storyline, is to actually be reading it while a real thunderstorm is happening, as it was for me. I assumed the plot would be about someone involved with the televised baking show getting killed early on, and the rest of the book would be about solving that murder. It was so much more complex and enjoyable.


The book starts out simply as six baking show contestants are making their way to the manor house of the show’s host, where filming occurs and all will be staying. There is tension as hopes are high in each baker to win the contest, each for their own reason. Early on a theme of someone sabotaging contest cooks develops yet no one is identified as the culprit, then liaisons occur, professional rivalries, and soon it seems each contestant has something going on, and no one is dead yet. The gift of this book is the deft interweaving of these diverse narratives in such an engaging manner, the reader is invested in what happens next, and in the various ongoing side dramas. 

Ultimately one is dead, and it actually appears any number of people could be implicated. At this point readers are turning pages as fast as they can, new discoveries are made, and ultimately justice is served (one way or another). Both conclusion and afterword are both immensely satisfying, with even a glimmer of a future for the person incarcerated. 

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