Customer Reviews

The Chocolate Snowman Murders: A Chocoholic Mystery

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have all the chocoholic books and I love them all. However, I think it is safe to declare this one the best in the series so far. The last book was a bit of a disappointment but this has renewed my faith in the author, so much so that it was even worth the hardcover price.

The story centers around the small town of Warner Pier, Michigan and its christmas festival, WinterFest, in hopes to attract tourism and drum up business in a wintery time when business would otherwise be slow. Lee Woodyard, the main character and series amateur sleuth, is the treasurer of the WinterFest committee and through a series of events winds up traveling to a town an hour away to pick up the judge of the Warner Pier art show, who is thoroughly sloshed and quite amorous. She successfully fights him off and dumps him at a nearby motel. The next day he mysteriously winds up dead with she and her husband Joe as the prime suspects. All signs point to someone on the WinterFest committee since they were Mr. Drunk's only contacts in the Michigan area.

There is tasty chocolate trivia interspersed throughout the chapters and of course, delicious descriptions of the candy treats sold in Lee's aunt Nettie's business, TenHuis Chocolade. The story moves along at a nice pace and the book is not too long. I enjoy the small town atmosphere of the book and the whodunit plot is well planned out by Ms. Carl. I think this is her best mystery of this series and although I guessed whodunit before all was revealed, it was only because of her clever clues and not because it was so terribly obvious. Overall, I most definitely recommend this book to any mystery fan and especially fans of the previous chocoholic mysteries. I suggest you read this with some chocolate handy.

Carl's book is a good read for a lazy afternoon, an airline flight or a cozy evening before the fire. It includes a bonus of chocolate trivia which even chocoholics may not know. I didn't.

Lee McKinney Woodyard finds herself once again serving up an entrée of mystery with a dessert of chocolate. Throughout the story, Lee offers various chocolate treats to those she encounters. Her descriptions made me long for some fine dark chocolate.

Carl is an experienced writer who draws the reader quickly into a small town drama and introduces us to characters who might be familiar to all of us. We know there will be trouble as soon as the cast is known. In this case, The Warner Pier Winter Arts Festival is just days away. The judge of the art show has backed out and the substitute flown in at the last minute is far from satisfactory. Lee and her husband, Joe, are suspects in the shenanigans that follow. The writing contains just enough humor to cause a smile or a laugh every once in a while.

by Judith Helburn
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I love Christmas murder mysteries. I'm not sure why I love them so much. Perhaps it is because the mysteries I tend to read are of the cozy/amateur sleuth type and they make me feel warm and cozy. Not sure what that says about me. But it is my reality and Joanna Carl has added to my Christmas happiness with The Chocolate Snowman Murders. I haven't read her books before, but will be searching them out now that I've read this one.

Lee McKinney Woodyard doesn't really want to serve on the Warner Pier Winter Arts Festival committee, but she agreed and it is a commitment she must keep. Besides she is the owner of TenHuis Chocolade and dedicated to her business and community. And she loves living in a `happening' place, even if she has to help make things happen.

The Arts Festival is proving to be difficult. There are egos, changes to the schedule, time commitments that go awry, and then there's Fletcher Mendenhall, the arts festival juror who shows up in town drunk. Lee takes things in stride and leaves him to sleep off his `drunk'. Lee doesn't give him another thought until her husband, Joe tells her that the juror is a corpse, as in dead. This is a case of death by desk lamp.

Since Lee was one of the last people to see the victim alive, she's in a predicament. Then another body turns up (murder by snowman) and the situation becomes dire. Lee must solve the case before more bodies turn up.

The Chocolate Snowman Murders is perfect for your Christmas mystery reading. You'll smile. You really will. And you'll be glad you sat down and read it. Then you'll want another of Carl's books.

Armchair Interviews says: A good holiday read.

Some of the reviews were spot on. There were so many little things that just kept this from being a settle in and get cozy book.

Part of the reason I couldn't get into the story was because it didn't flow. The plot felt forced and the writing stilted. The warmth wasn't there.

Lee, the main character, speaks a few times of locals not embracing newcomers. This took away a bit of the welcome factor and made me feel a little detached from the characters.

As written by other posters, Lee has a problem twisting words when nervous. The author could have used this as a way to make the character more likable. Unfortunately it only made her annoying. Lee is also rather unflattering in her assessment of others, which I found off putting.

A few of the secondary characters showed promise and I wish they would have played a larger role in the story. Some of the male characters however were portrayed as complete jerks and/or idiots to the point where it seemed over the top.

With light reads such as this, I want to feel as if I am visiting a friend in a hometown. I just didn't get that from this book. Perhaps the other books in the series are more inviting, but this one didn't make me want to come back for another visit.

With the Winter Arts Festival just days away, Lee Woodyard and her husband Joe are busy helping the rest of the committee put the finishing touches on events. One thing Lee takes on is picking up Fletcher Mendenhall, the juror who is coming in to judge the art show. When she arrives at the airport, she finds him drunk. But the worst part is that he makes repeated passes at Lee and won't take no for an answer. Fed up, Lee drops him off at a hotel.

But that isn't the end of things. The next morning, Mendenhall is found murdered in his room. Since Lee was the last person to see him, she becomes the only suspect. That would be bad enough if key evidence didn't keep showing up in her possession. Can Lee find out who really committed the murder before she is arrested?

I love books where the murder victim truly deserves to die, and that was the case here. That helped pull me in to the book from the beginning. Things get off to a fairly quick start, and they keep moving from there. The ending was a complete surprise. And we got to see many of the series regulars, who were in top form. Lee's "tongue tangles" were kept to a minimum. The new characters were interesting.

I was hesitant about leaping with the series to hardcover, but I'm glad I did. This entry in the series will satisfy its many fans.

I picked this up at the library off of the staff recommendations shelf. Normally I enjoy their picks, but this mystery started slow, got slower, and never held my interest. The main character isn't interesting, and I thought the supporting characters were completely undeveloped. Based on the reviews, it seems that some of the other books in the series may be better, but this one left me unwilling to check them out.

Right now, JoAnna Carl is my choice for "treadmill books"; light-weight, easy to read, easy to pick up and put down novels to read each morning during my workout. It helps that many of these also come in large print versions! In this installment, Lee (the heroine) and Joe are married. It is winter in the Michigan tourist town of Warner Pier and the Winter Arts Festival, which Lee is on the committee of, is about to begin. She dashes over to the airport in another town to pick up the art show judge, but he's drunk and puts the move on her on the drive back. Lee, disgusted with his actions, drops him off at the nearest motel to sober up. The next day, her husband finds the man dead in his motel room. Now both Lee and Joe are the prime suspects. And that's all I'm going to tell you!

Lives up to Joanna's other books in this series. Will continue to get any more she writes for this series.

I love these books and order each one as they come out. Fun and easy to read series.

The Chocolate Mysteries are a great series of books. Not only about murder, never gory, but also about the continuing saga of the main characters.