Name: Death by Pumpkin Spice
ISBN: 9781617737558

Alex Erickson

Death by Pumpkin Spice

Sarah Sammis

Death by Pumpkin Spice by Alex Erickson is the third of the Bookstore Cafe mysteries. It's a departure from the others in the series, being primarily a locked room mystery.

Krissy has been invited to a Halloween party, one that is the annual talk of the town. It's set in a house specifically built to be a year-round themed haunted house. The party happens to fall during a strong rain storm, turning the long gravel driveway into an impassable mudslide, essentially trapping everyone there and preventing the police from arriving in a timely manner.

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Bookstore café owner Krissy Hancock would rather spend Halloween serving pumpkin goodies than wearing costumes with Pine Hills’ wealthiest at Yarborough mansion, especially when the soiree shapes up to be more trick than treat . . . As if a run-in with an old flame and a failed marriage proposal weren’t enough to horrify Krissy for one night, a woman is found strangled to death in a room filled with ominous jack-o’-lanterns. All signs suggest a crime of passion—but when the hostess’s jewelry disappears, malevolent intentions seem way more likely . . . With the estate on lockdown and a killer roaming the halls, Krissy must help Officer Paul Dalton investigate each nook, cranny, and guest for answers—while also confronting a few demons of her own. Someone has lots of skeletons in the closet, and Krissy better tread lightly to expose them . . .

Max & Luna

This was a near perfect cozy mystery! It takes place at a Halloween party in a huge (haunted?) mansion during a thunderstorm. What else do you need really? About 80% of the characters are new to this story, so there were many many options on who the killer might be. There were hidden clues throughout that the narrator didn’t actually notice, so if you are a seasoned mystery reader, you could probably solve the case before Krissy.

This story also had a lot of action…which i found sort of interesting in a cozy mystery. Not sure I’ve seen a story structure quite like this before, but i really liked it. The majority of the book takes place over about 3 or 4 hours in the mansion, so the bookstore and coffee shop are sort of lost in this story, unfortunately. Also, one thing I would have like to see is more description of the mansion. I did get the general feeling that the mansion was huge and scary but not many specific details.

When I presented this book at my book club another of the ladies said that she didn’t like it because she felt it was too “formula” and while she enjoys a lot of cozy mysteries, she prefers them to have a bit more going on. I am generally really bad at being critical, but after she said that, I did realize that this book was very short, not really in length but in time frame. The bulk of the book spans the length of the party, which is about 8ish hours. So if you are looking for something over many weeks or months, this won’t really work. I guess that is all about preference.

Overall, it was a great Halloween read and i’ll def be checking out more in this series and by this author.

Chelsea Breher

I honestly struggled to finish this one, it wasn't horrible but it wasn't great. Found the m/c to be very whiny and hard to deal with.

Death by Pumpkin Spice

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