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The Winter Arts Festival in Warner Pier, Michigan has suffered a setback. The judge for the competition has broken his leg and won't be able to appear. Fortunately, the festival director has found a replacement, Fletcher Mendenhall, who turns out to be a lecherous drunk. Lee, who had the job of picking him up from the airport, checks him into his motel and leaves. Lee tells the whole tale to her husband, Joe, who says he will check on Fletcher on his way home from Grand Rapids. Though he can hear Fletcher's cell phone ring in the room, there is no sign of the man. When Joe persuades the desk clerk to open the room, he finds Fletcher dead, beaten with a desk lamp. Sergeant McCullough of the Lake Knapp police force is determined to arrest Lee or Joe or both for the murder. Lee is just as determined to clear herself and her husband. But who could be the real culprit? Lee's first choice is Mozelle French, who has led the Arts Festival for years and has made an enemy of almost everyone in town. While Lee suspects each member of the Arts Festival committee, each one has a strong alibi, and no one really has a motive. As a character in another book says, "When no one's a suspect, everyone is a suspect." Lee must juggle her investigating with her ownership of Ten Huis Chocolade store. As the holidays draw near, work is piling up. She is drawn away from the store with a bogus order for chocolates; when she arrives to deliver the order, she is pursued through the woods by a chocolate covered snowman. This, the eighth in the Chocoholic Mysteries series, is strong in characterization, especially Lee and Joe who are feeling their way together in a relatively new marriage. Mozelle is particularly well drawn, as she turns from harridan to a vulnerable woman who was part of Fletcher's dark past. The plot is very well paced, as Lee and Joe move toward a solution with the dogged McCullough nipping at their heels. All in all, a book likely to appeal both to cozy readers and to lovers of good chocolate .
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, November 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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