Daisy Ellery’s pies have a secret ingredient: The magical ability to avenge women done wrong by men…The first time Daisy Ellery killed a man with a pie, it was an accident. Now, it’s her calling. Daisy bakes sweet vengeance into her pastries, which she and her dog Zoe deliver to the men who’ve done dirty deeds to the town’s women. But if she can’t solve the one crime that’s not of her own baking, she’ll be out of the pie pan and into the oven.
Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies is a book that seems to have all the elements of a great cozy mystery. A cute cover, an awesome title, and an interesting premise.
Daisy is our main protagonist and she has this amazing power of infusing magic into her pies. This magic renders her pies deadly and once she found out she could kill someone with them after accidentally killing a man, she decides to make that her calling and goes on avenging women who suffered in the hands of evil men.
She soon starts a word-of-mouth free service she calls Pies Before Guys, calls herself an avenging pie maker, and goes on with her business of killing men who she deemed have done their share of evil in the world. Until one day she finds an anonymous letter threatening to expose her killer business, so she sets out to discover the owner of the letter.
I have to say that when I read the synopsis of this book I was really intrigued. I figured this was going to be a cozy and funny story with some mystery element in it. Unfortunately, the final product was quite different from what I had in mind.
The concept of being able to infuse pies with magical powers was a very interesting start. But as you read the story, you soon realize that there is nothing really cute about that and that in fact, Daisy is no better than any other gun for hire or even a serial killer. Although Popp tried really hard to make us sympathize with Daisy and her struggles growing up, I had a real hard time connecting to her or any other character in this book, except for Zoe, the dog.
Another thing that did not work out for me was the misrepresentation of the book genre. The synopsis, title, and book cover lead you to believe that you are embarking on a cozy mystery adventure, but the reality of the story is a lot darker than that. Once you get past this initial annoyance, the story does get a little better and the pie recipes at the end of the book are a nice addition, but not enough to pull off a 3-star rating from me.
Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies is scheduled to be published on May 10, 2022. I want to thank Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Have you heard about the couple on Maple Drive?
Marvey, a librarian, has moved from Brooklyn to a quirky small town in Georgia. When she’s not at the library organizing events for readers, she’s handcrafting book-themed jewelry and looking after her cranky cat. At times, her new life in the South still feels strange…and that’s before the discovery of the dead body in the bookstore.
Summer Merriweather’s career as a Shakespeare professor hangs by a bookbinder’s thread. Academic life at her Virginia university is a viper’s pit, so Summer spends her summer in England, researching a scholarly paper that, with any luck, will finally get her published, impress the Dean, and save her job. But her English idyll ends when her mother, Hildy, shuffles off her mortal coil from an apparent heart attack. Returning to Brigid’s Island, NC, for the funeral, Summer is impatient to settle the estate, sell her mom’s embarrassingly romance-themed bookstore, Beach Reads, and go home. But as she drops by Beach Reads, Summer finds threatening notes addressed to Hildy: “Sell the bookstore or die.” Clearly, something is rotten on Brigid’s Island. What method is behind the madness? Was Hildy murdered?
Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent – and nearly five million souls in the United States alone – the disease causes “Lock In”: Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.
When small-town police officers discover the grave of a young boy, they’re quick to pin the crime on a convicted felon who lives nearby. But when it comes to murder, Officer Susan Marlan never trusts a simple explanation, so she’s just getting started. Meanwhile, college professor Eric Evans hallucinates a young boy in overalls: a symptom of his schizophrenia—or so he thinks. But when more bodies turn up, Eric has more visions, and they mirror details of the murder case. As the investigation continues, the police stick with their original conclusion, but Susan’s instincts tell her something is off. The higher-ups keep stonewalling her, and the FBI’s closing in. Desperate for answers, Susan goes rogue and turns to Eric for help. Together they take an unorthodox approach to the case as the evidence keeps getting stranger. With Eric’s hallucinations intensifying and the body count rising, can the pair separate truth from illusion long enough to catch a monster?
It’s 2072, and lunar helium-3 mining is powering the fusion reactors that are bringing Earth back from environmental disaster. But competing for the richest prize in the history of the world has destroyed the oldest rule in space: Safety for All. When a bomb kills one of Dechert’s diggers on Mare Serenitatis, the haunted veteran goes on the hunt to expose the culprit before more blood is spilled. But as Dechert races to solve the first murder in the history of the Moon, he gets caught in the crosshairs of two global powers spoiling for a fight. Reluctant to be the match that lights this powder-keg, Dechert knows his life and those of his crew are meaningless to the politicians. Even worse, he knows the killer is still out there, hunting. In his desperate attempts to save his crew and prevent the catastrophe he sees coming, the former Marine uncovers a dangerous conspiracy that, with one spark, can ignite a full lunar war, wipe out his team . . . and perhaps plunge the Earth back into darkness.
A Wondrous Bookshelf 