A Midsummer Night's Fudge by Nancy CoCo

Available: May 24, 2022

Rating: 4 stars

Allie is happy to pitch in to help with the Midsummer Night's Festival on Mackinac Island, but the festival takes a quick turn when Winona Higer, the festival's committee chair, is found dead shortly after disqualifying one of the festival queen contestants. Is it a case of sour grapes? Or is there something deeper and more sinister happening?

Mackinac Island has been on my list of places I'd like to visit for many years. I love the idea of an island with no cars, people riding bikes and taking hikes and the clip clop of horses hooves on the pavement. Allie has the fun job of making fudge in the front window of her family's historic hotel, which she's spent the last few years renovating to its former glory. When she's not busy with that she's walking her little dog Mal, who sniffs out corpses like most dogs sniff out a squirrel.

This book felt a little rushed. There were parts of it that were a bit of a whirlwind. I thought more time could have been spent on some of the things that were happening, particularly when the first body was found. I also thought Allie, who's had quite a bit of experience with this whole murder thing by now, was surprisingly irresponsible when it came to the crime scenes. She touched and moved evidence on several occasions, which any devoted cozy reader knows is a big no no. Allie also took a lot of unnecessary chances. In this book there was a sniper on the island, picking off festival committee members in random locations throughout the island, but Allie never heeded anyone's advice to stay in where she would be safe (and their silly suggestions that she would be safe if she wasn't alone) and she was convinced that as long as she was on Main street she would be fine. Taking risks is one thing but the way she reacted to Rex's repeated pleas that she protect herself seemed quite childish.

Overall I enjoyed this book. This is a series that I always keep up with. A Midsummer Night's Fudge was not one of the best in the series, but definitely worth reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.