the play's the thing

Jules Capshaw is back, this time with twins in her belly. It’s not quite time for the birth, but she is having to cut back on some of her duties at her bakery Torte. But when her best friend Lance wants Torte to create a crime scene dinner for the cast and crew of his latest production, Jules can’t help but say yes.

Lance Rousseau is celebrating the popularity of his latest play, Perfect Crime, a change of pace from his usual Shakespeare. However, the cast is struggling against the director and he is somewhat distracted trying to plan his wedding. But he knows that Jules and Torte can come up with a beautiful spread for the party, even on short notice.

Jules puts her head together with her bakers and cooks, and they prepare some appetizers, a meal, and desserts for Lance’s party. It’s to follow one of the performances. As Jules takes in the space they will have for cooking and for serving, she overhears some of the things happening with the cast. Apparently the director, Kean Armitage, has insisted that his actors use the Method style of acting, staying in character on the stage and off.

So lead actor Roman is skulking around acting menacing at all times, and Blake has felt like someone was following her, causing her to feel increasingly anxious as the days have gone by. Kean’s ex-wife is also in town, as a sketchy theater reviewer and party planner for Lance’s last-minute cast party. And Casey, in charge of the props for the play, is incensed because Kean told Roman to take the prop gun with him outside of the theater, which is just asking for trouble.

And trouble comes, when Kean is shot in the head the evening of the big cast party.

Jules and her crew decide to go ahead and serve the meal they prepared, but instead of a fun cast party, they are serving a serious-minded cast and police officers as they take breaks from gathering evidence and questioning suspects. Lance is taking this murder personally, as it happened in the middle of his perfect murder mystery play, so he enlists Jules to help him investigate. But Jules is now especially vulnerable, so she needs to stay alert to stay out of danger herself.

The Whisking Hour is book 22 in Ellie Alexander’s popular Bakeshop Mystery Series based in Ashland, Oregon. You don’t have to have read the previous books to dive into this one, but there are a lot of recurring characters and much of the activity that’s not about solving the murder is about the bakery and family, which is more meaningful the more of these books you read.

There is a lot of food talk, brownies and meatballs and coffee, so I always have to make sure I have snacks on hand before reading her books. And if you’re a fan of all of Alexander’s books, then there is a truly lovely surprise from her Sloan Krause brewery mystery series. But I do love reading these Bookshop mysteries. They feel make me feel like I’m taking a trip to see friends, getting caught up on all the changes to the town and what everyone is up to (and eating!). I was surprised that the babies weren’t here yet, as this is not the only book where Jules has been pregnant, but otherwise, I had a lot of fun visiting Torte and the gang in Ashland, and I look forward to those babies being born.

Egalleys for The Whishing Hour were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.