when the past finds you again
On the eve of the second birthday of Willa Bauer’s cheese shop Curds & Whey, she got a big shock. Her ex-fiancé and ex-best friend appeared in her small California town. Local baker Hope had a grand opening for her new cakery and announced a partnership with Chocolate Bliss, the chocolate shop owned by Pearce and Riley. There had been a time when Willa had been a part of the business plan and about to marry Pearce, but while Willa had been putting in long hours learning to run a business, Pearce and Riley had been putting in long hours falling in love.
After the breakup, Willa had gone to France and fallen in love with cheese. When she came back to the States, she had chosen a small town where she could open a cheese shop and start a new life. Now Pearce and Riley are in her town, and she’s not happy about it. Willa had ordered a cheesecake for her shop birthday party, and when she goes to the cakery to pick it up, she finds a box of chocolates with it. The chocolates weren’t for her. They were supposed to go to A.J. at the local newspaper for a review. Willa swallows her hurt and offers to take the chocolates to A.J.’s office.
When Willa got to the newspaper office, she hears angry voices. Her friend and local reporter Deandre is arguing with new reporter Kevin about assignments. Kevin is competitive and pushing in on Deandre’s assignments, and she doesn’t like that. She leaves her resignation letter on A.J.’s desk and storms out. Willa leaves the chocolates on A.J.’s desk along with a note that says, “You’re in trouble,” as she was upset that Deandre would rather quit than work with Kevin. She and A.J. had worked together solving some local murders, so Willa knew she could poke at him like that.
But when A.J. shows up at the office, he finds Kevin dead. The police determine that he had eaten the chocolates, which someone had poisoned. And when they make an announcement through the town, asking anyone who had bought anything or eaten anything from the cakery’s opening, tourists start to worry about whether it’s safe to eat anywhere in town, even Willa’s cheese shop.
Willa wants to help figure out who killed Kevin and why, but there are a lot of questions. Who had access to the chocolates to poison them? And was Kevin the intended target? He was known for having a sweet tooth, but those chocolates were meant for A.J. And at first, they were placed with Willa’s order, so maybe it was someone who wanted to get rid of her. And was it meant to be a murder, or was someone trying to sabotage Chocolate Bliss and run them out of town? As Wills and Team Cheese, as she calls her crime-solving and cheese-loving team, try to sort through what they know, they get closer and closer to a killer. So even if Willa wasn’t the target originally, she becomes one as the clues pile up and the true picture of the murder comes together. Will she be able to solve it before they come for her?
Bait and Swiss is book six in Korina Moss’s tasty Cheese Shop mystery series. In this one, Willa’s past comes to her small town and upends her quiet life. I was really excited to find out more about her past, about the relationships that shaped her life in Yarrow Glen. I also love all the cheese talk in the books, but it does make me hungry. The Raclette over potatoes? My mouth was watering. Sadly, that was not one of the recipes included at the end of the book, but there are No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Jars and Pizza Smashed Potatoes, so all is forgiven.
I really enjoy Korina Moss’s cheesy mysteries. These are smart characters who believe in justice and cheese, and I am all in for that. Bait and Swiss is a fun read, cozy and delicious, with everything I’m looking for in a good, solid cozy mystery.
Egalleys for Bait and Swiss were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.
