The Golden Spoon

The Golden Spoon is a fun closed suspect cozy mystery by Jessa Maxwell. Released 7 Mar 2023 by Simon & Schuster on their Atria imprint, it's 288 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format is due out 5th Mar 2024 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. 

The vibe here is classic stately home, with a reality cooking show twist. Readers who enjoy cooking contest shows and lightly campy mystery with a classic Golden Age feel will be in raptures. The characters run the gamut and feel in some cases more sketched in, than deeply rendered. There is, however, a large collection of them and if readers were treated to -deep- character studies, the book would've topped 500 pages.

It's very well written throughout, with well constructed prose and a solidly engineered mystery. It definitely doesn't have the feel of a debut novel, and the author has some serious chops. It's well written. It's slightly heavy for a light cozy, but not at all into thriller/psychological mystery territory. The plotting technique of keeping the murder victim secret is reminiscent of ECR Lorac and Christie herself. 

Four stars. Well written. Definitely worth a read for fans of Golden Age stately home mysteries with a little lighter feel, like Clue and Knives out (though less bonkers than either). 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.