Customer Reviews

The Chocolate Puppy Puzzle

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This is the ninth book in the Chocoholic Mystery series that I've read. I have not read them in order, but keep track of them chronologically by the stage of the relationship between two of the main characters, Lee and Joe. For others of you who do the same, Lee and Joe finally announce their wedding date at the very end of this novel. These books are light-weight, cozy mysteries. They are fun and the reader gets comfortable with the characters. These are the books I read when I work out on the treadmill; for which it helps that many of them are available in large print versions! This one is far enough along in the series that you can really see improvements made by the author. Lee's obnoxious little speech impediment is played down here (thank goodness) and the mystery is more complex; not as easy to figure out as in some of the earlier novels in the series. In short, a Warner Pier native writes a novel about a scandal in her family's past. It is not a very good novel, but soon a movie producer shows up claiming he is going to make a film based on the novel. Lee is suspicious of him right away, especially when her Aunt Nettie agrees to go on a date with him. Then someone related to the author dies and some other people are shot at, including Lee. Lee is convinced the so-called movie producer is responsible, but then he goes missing. Oh, and his dog, a chocolate lab, is left on her doorstep for her to take care of. And that's all I'm going to tell you!

Western Michigan has a haunted past.

In the 1930's a small time crook from Chicago rented a summer cottage on the shores of Lake Michigan for a few months when he waited out the cops who were on his tail. While there, he got romantically involved with a local woman. Both he and she left town at the same time under somewhat mysterious circumstances - never to be seen again.

Fast forward to the present and the town of Warner Pier still hears echos of that long-lost event. A scion of the woman's family writes her version of the story and the book is published causing her to undergo a complete personality change. The local legend has now changed sufficiently to where the hoodlum is now a pirate and there must be buried treasure around the cabin that he rented!

The publication of the book causes a purported film director to visit and start making the rounds looknig for local locations to shoot at, as well as sniff around for some financing. However, all is not as it seems and the dark clouds of crime and nefarious goings-on quickly envelop the town and its local sleuth - Lee.

Lee has a habit of mangling her words when under stress. Add to this the fact that she is a blonde of almost six feet tall and used to compete in beauty pageants leads many to believe that she is not the world's smartest cookie. On the other hand, she is now an accountant and business manager of her aunt's chocolate shop and is also in love with the town's hunky attorney. So, do not discount her brains!

Since she is also somewhat of an impulsive meddler in other people's affairs, it is not too long before she sniffs out that there is something wrong with the director, the local drama teacher in the high school, the whole pirate story, and a bunch of other storylines. One of the most fun ones, of course, is that the director has a chocolate lab puppy he works with which leads to the inevitable confusion between the chocolate puppies that Ten Huis chocolate makes, and the real puppy, and the culprits of the crimes, and the long-abandoned cabin and on and on.

A murder, a kidnapping, creepy escapes through the woods, mysterious disappearances that has the whole town buzzing and more flow through the pages of this light mystery that has just the right amount of tension and information to keep you reading until you reach the reasonably satisfying conclusion. It is another in a line of enjoyable stories from JoAnna Carl.