Cheddar Off Dead is the first book in a small-town shopfront cozy series by Korina Moss. Released 29th March 2022 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in mass market paperback, audio, and ebook formats.
This is a promising start to a comfortable easy-to-read small-town "shopfront" cozy with an appealingly intelligent 30something female protagonist who owns a cheese shop. When an irascibly evil tempered newspaper food critic is found with one of her shop's cheese knives in his neck right after threatening her with a bad review, she turns amateur sleuth to try to clear her name and uncover a murderer.
As with most cozies, the emphasis is on the characters and the puzzle. The crimes are described off-scene and without being gruesome. The language is clean and there's no sexual content. The subplot threads are skillfully entwined into a satisfying climax and resolution. Although I do confess I figured out "whodunnit" before the end, I still enjoyed the read very much. I'm looking forward to the next installment in the series.
Four stars. Definitely one for shopfront cozy fans. It's full of esoteric cheese minutiae and I found a number of specialty cheeses I'm looking forward to trying.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Thanks for your thoughtful review of my book. I'm glad you enjoyed it! Cheers to cheese!
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