The Chocolate Shark Shenanigans

September 1, 2019
An accountant and her lawyer husband must revisit his high school days in order to solve a murder. Lee Woodyard is no fan of the scheme her husband, Joe, and her uncle, Hogan Jones, the local police chief, hatch to buy the Bailey house next door and flip it. But even though she'd rather be at her job as business manager at her aunt's chocolate specialty shop (The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha, 2016, etc.), she agrees to meet with the plumber for an estimate--a meeting that turns dangerous when plumber Digger Brown finds a bundle of rags in the cellar. When he drops them, a gun hidden in the bundle goes off, sending a bullet whizzing past Lee. No one seems to know where the old fashioned six-shooter came from, but the accident recalls a past incident in which the Sharks, a group of high school boys that included Brad Davis, Chip Brown, Sharpy Brock, Tad Bailey, and Spud Dirk, pulled a prank that could have been deadly. Years ago, when several Sharks pretended as a joke to rob a convenience store in which Brad was working, Brad pulled a real gun and fired but hit nothing more vital than the Frozen Rainbow Machine. Now Brad's the president of the VanHorn-Davis Foundation, whose charitable donations underwrite many improvements to the Michigan lakeside town of Warner Pier. When Lee accompanies Hogan to the Bailey house to show him where the gun was, they find more than they bargained for--Spud's corpse in a cupboard. Although Hogan's the police chief, he must stay out of the investigation because Spud had been competing with him to buy the Bailey house. So Lee, who'd prefer to stick to chocolates, is forced to join Joe in detective work. A run-of-the-mill mystery that includes some welcome tips on the health benefits of chocolate.

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September 16, 2019
Carl’s delightful 17th Chocoholic mystery (after 2016’s The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha) opens with a bang. Lee Woodyard, who manages her aunt’s sweet shop in Warner Pier, Mich., and her husband, Joe, are exploring the old Bailey house, which they plan to buy, fix up, and resell for a profit, with her police chief uncle, Hogan Jones, and plumber Digger Brown when Digger accidentally drops a gun he finds stashed in the basement. The gun goes off, and a bullet barely misses Lee. Next, Hogan discovers the body of small-time developer Spud Dirk, who claimed first dibs on the Bailey place, in the carport. Joe and Lee decide to investigate, backtracking to Joe’s school days when the Sharks, a gang of five boys, used to hang out in the Bailey basement. Four of them once pulled a ridiculous fake robbery at the fifth gang member’s workplace. Was it a coincidence that irascible Meyer “Curley” McWhirley died, apparently of natural causes, on the same night as the phony holdup? Carl keeps the reader guessing. Those who like their cozies profanity free will be rewarded. Agent: Laura Blake Petersen, Curtis Brown.

October 15, 2019
Against her better judgment, Lee Woodyard, manager of TenHuis Chocolade, along with her husband, Joe, and her police chief uncle, Hogan Jones, agrees to purchase a nearby house to flip. Soon Lee is proved right when she and Hogan find Richard "Spud" Dirk, who had also tried to buy the property, dead in the carport. Thanks to a recent argument with Dirk, Joe is a suspect, but it turns out that numerous other Warner Pier, Michigan, residents had issues with the dead man, prompting Lee to investigate with the tacit encouragement of Hogan, who has recused himself from the case. Lee and Joe concentrate their efforts on members of the Sharks, a high-school gang to which Dirk belonged when he was in high school. A long-ago prank perpetuated by the Sharks complicates the present-day murder investigation, but Lee and Joe persevere. Framed by an atmospheric Lake Michigan resort town and plenty of chocolate, this will appeal to fans of food mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)