NOTHING BUNDT TROUBLE by Ellie Alexander (Out 6/30/2020)

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the complimentary eARC of NOTHING BUNDT TROUBLE by Ellie Alexander for an honest review.

Publication Date: 6/30/2020

Rating: 3.5 / 5

I needed a book with a pun in the title for one of my reading challenges and I knew that the cozy mystery genre would be a great place to look. I have not been a big cozy mystery reader, but when I spotted NOTHING BUNDT TROUBLE by Ellie Alexander, I was instantly intrigued. The description promised sweets, a town with a focus on Shakespeare and an interesting mystery so I was thrilled to be approved to review it!

NOTHING BUNDT TROUBLE is the eleventh book in Ellie Alexander’s A Bakeshop Mystery series. Juliet Capshaw has her hands full managing Torte, a premiere bakeshop in Ashland, Oregon full of staff passionate to create the best in sweets, food and premium coffees. On the homefront, Juliet has recently moved back into her childhood home. When going through boxes her mother left in the basement, Juliet finds an old journal left by her late father detailing something called the “Pastry Case” from long ago when Juliet was only five.

As Juliet reads further on, she realizes that her father, the man who opened the Torte bakeshop, was just as interested in mysteries as she seems to be. In this case, he was attempting to help the police solve the mystery of a hit-and-run death from the 80’s. The journal lays out all the investigation, suspects and clues which lead everyone to believe it was no accident. Juliet is determined to find a conclusion to the long cold case!

This was a really fun read and I’m glad that I picked it up! I flew through this book in a single afternoon! There really is a cozy series for nearly every interest and this one spoke to me on several levels – food, pastries, coffee and Shakespeare! Much of the story is told through Juliet’s father’s very detailed journal entries from years ago, giving glimpses into his family life, the early days of Torte with the first espresso machine in town, and the burgeoning theater scene.

The mystery itself was intriguing with no shortage of peoples who weren’t too terribly upset to learn of the victim’s death. The journal begins with Juliet’s father talking about the danger his investigation posed to his family and business with someone clearly not wanting this case solved.

This one had a cast of colorful characters, food descriptions that will make you hungry (do not going into this one on an empty stomach!), and a fun mystery to solve. As a newbie to the series, the author did a great job of introducing characters and places so that this worked quite well as a standalone!

Definitely keep an eye out for this one when it’s released on 6/30/2020!

Reading Challenges:

#PopsugarReadingChallenge – a book with a pun in the title