Willa Bauer knows a good cheese when she sees it. She has spent years traveling around, trying cheese and learning to sell them before settling in the small town of Yarrow Glen and setting up her own cheese shop. Curds & Whey is the culmination of her lifelong dream, and while she’s still struggling with that first year of a new business, she has had an event drop into her lap, and she is going to take full advantage of it.
Celebrity chef and vegan Phoebe Winston has come to town to promote her new cookbook. She is appearing at Curds & Whey for a cooking demonstration because Willa was an early adopter of the vegan cheese who is sponsoring Phoebe’s book tour. Willa is hoping the event will bring in some extra sales and some good publicity for her store.
When Phoebe first shows up at the shop, she is electric, and entitled. She insists on having chairs for every ticket holder, which Willa was not prepared for. And Phoebe insists on having the ingredients prepped and ready for six different recipes, even though she will only be preparing two. Phoebe’s assistant Thomas helps get Willa all the information to prepare for the event, while Phoebe asks Willa’s employee Archie to take care of her dog Buttercup for a while.
But despite Phoebe’s rudeness, Willa does her best to prepare the store for the event. But when some leaked photos of the vegan chef eating barbecued ribs damage Phoebe’s reputation, Willa is left to wonder if the event will even happen. And then, when Phoebe ends up murdered, Willa knows that her hopes for an amazing event are over. Willa will have to cancel the event, refund everyone’s ticket prices, and pay the expenses herself. But more importantly, when it comes out that Archie was the last one on the security cameras at Phoebe’s rented house, Willa knows that this event could cost her even more. It could put Archie behind bars.
Willa immediately starts to investigate, enlisting the help of all the friends she can recruit, to exonerate Archie and find out the truth. Could her assistant Thomas have finally turned on Phoebe for all her bad treatment? Could it be her old friend from culinary school, whose recipes Phoebe may have stolen for her first cookbook? Could it be the mysterious stalker whose photo was sent to Phoebe and then disappeared after her murder? Or was it someone who was upset that she lied about being vegan? As Willa and her friends add suspects to the list and then track down the answers to their questions, they get closer and closer to a killer. But when Willa gets too close, will she be able to find a way of escape, or will she be put out of business for good?
Gone for Gouda is a charming cozy, set in a small town, and with a good cast of characters. The backdrop of the cheese shop is fun, and there are even several cheese-related recipes at the end of the book, like the Beer-Cheese Soup that Willa has made at the beginning of the story to enjoy the coming of fall. The mystery has lots of red herrings and potential suspects, as well as delicious cheeses and a cute dog.
I enjoyed Gone for Gouda. I am big fan of cheese, so I love all the food descriptions. I like Willa and her friends, but I do find it a little tiresome that Willa is romantically interested in a couple of different men in the middle of a murder investigation. But overall, it’s a fun cozy read, good for curling up with some tea or apple cider and a good plate of cheese.
Egalleys for Gone for Gouda were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.
