The Chocolate Bear Burglary (Chocoholic Mysteries, No. 2) [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; large type edition edition
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754089592
• ISBN-13: 978-0754089599
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,323,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JoAnna Carl is the pseudonym for a multipublished mystery writer. She spent more than twenty-five years in the newspaper business.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious food mystery!, March 31, 2003

By 

Sandi Jones (Cincinnati, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Chocolate Bear Burglary (Chocoholic Mysteries, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

JoAnna Carl is another of the great cozy mystery writers writing in the food genre that has become so popular. If you like Tamar Myers or Joanne Pence, you will enjoy JoAnna Carl.

We start our tale, in the winter, with Lee, a heroine displaced from Texas, to Western Michigan. Lee has taken on the daunting task of looking after the business side of her aunt's chocolate factory and store, TenHuis. While she can work magic with a ledger, Lee has the troublesome problem of saying the wrong thing all of the time.

We follow Lee as one problem after another falls into her unsuspecting hands. With her everpresent verbal bumblings, her inteligence is easily called into question, but as it all plays out, she does find a way to extract herself, and her loved ones from all of the messes. (I won't give details, as I DESPISE spoilers!)

She also includes little tidbits of trivia about the appearance of chocolate in older works of mystery. Those segements are fascinating.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and inventive mystery, December 19, 2002

By 

Moe811 (New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chocolate Bear Burglary (Chocoholic Mysteries, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

Lee McKinney is divorced and helping her aunt run a chocolate shop and factory in a tourist town in Michigan. Her love life consists of phone calls from a man who won't take her out in public. She has some excitement with the shop's participation in a Teddy Bear Days promotion. A local family has loaned a collection of antique teddy chocolate molds for the shop's display. Her former stepson shows up out of the blue and strange things keep happening, culminating in a burglary and a murder. The antique molds seem to be at the center of it all.

This was a very good installment of the series. Lee and Joe's romance seems rocky but interesting. The Chocolade is doing well and people seem to be dying at a satisfactory rate to keep the series going. Can't wait for the next murder.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hot Crime in the Cold Winter, December 5, 2002

By 

Mark Baker (Santa Clarita, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chocolate Bear Burglary (Chocoholic Mysteries, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

Lee McKinney is handling her first winter in Michigan rather well for a Texas gal. She insists that the cold won't slow her down. What does stop her in her tracks is the sudden appearance of her ex-stepson, Jeff. Sullen and refusing to discuss why he's there, Aunt Nettie offers him a temporary job at TenHuis Chocolade.

Meanwhile, the town is getting ready for a teddy bear promotion to try to attract winter visitors. Lee and Nettie have borrowed some antique chocolate molds to decorate the shop. But then the shop is broken into late at night and a murder takes place. Are the two related? Why did Jeff sneak out of the house both nights? And, most importantly, can Lee clear him of murder?

The second in this cozy series will delight fans of the first. The author does a great job of reminding us of the characters and building on their personalities. It helps to read them in order, but with the backgrounds offered, not completely necessary. The mystery had several facets that kept me confused, but overall it could have been a little more complex.

Anyone who enjoys light mysteries will enjoy this series as well. But a word of warning. The descriptions of the chocolate might send you to your local candy store for a quick fix.