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World Hotels - Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry (Scumble River Mysteries, Book 10)
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List Price: $6.99
Our Price: $6.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Signet
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780451223685
ISBN: 0451223683
Label: Signet
Manufacturer: Signet
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 255
Publication Date: 2008-04-01
Publisher: Signet
Studio: Signet
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Editorial Reviews:
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Grandma Sal's Soup-To-Nuts Cooking Challenge is coming to town, and Skye Denison is entering. And though she can't solve the mystery of the perfect mousse, murder is another story. Because a cocky contestant has been found delectably drowned in a chocolate fountain...
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Fly-Over Country Feast: Crisco, Velveeta and Murder
Comment: It's a good thing Denise Swanson writes mysteries and not cook books. The culinary gems in this volume--Death of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry--are guaranteed to send foodies running for the nearest cleansing diet. The prize winning "recipe" features--I am not kidding: canned cream of celery soup, canned cream of chicken soup, Velveeta and uncooked macaroni, baked together with cooked chicken and other mouth-watering ingredients. Perhaps all the preservatives will protect you from the sodium content.
It's not just the food that's hash in this mystery. (Aptly enough, a big dinner scene takes place at the "Brown-Bag Banquet Hall": presumably wise diners pack their own in case "Chicken Supreme" is on the menu.) The plot and the characters are a little confused as well...there are more sub-plots here than inches around Skye's waist. But most infuriating are the multiple references to other books in the series. In my mind, a good series consists of entries that can stand on their own merits, without inexplicable references to characters and plots passed. Not so here. The quality of the writing--not the product placement of earlier books--is what should sell the series.
Then there is the character of Skye herself, apparently a plus-sized cutie who manages to attract all good-looking single men within her not-so-insignificant gravitational pull. This must be why the midwest is different from the coasts...such pairings simply do not happen near the Atlantic and Pacific. Perhaps the coastal natives spend more time in bathing suits? Who knows...but here is fiction at its most fictive.
Skye dates the dreamy police chief...possessed of good looks, a body that is ripped, a sensitive soul, and a steel-trap mind. So, why, one wonders, must Skye routinely give Capt'n Wally suggestions for conducting his investigations? If it's to move the plot forward, it does so at the cost of moving relations between the sexes backward...behind every great man there's the not-so-little woman.
I have read all of Swanson's books, and will likely read her next one too, but I do so not for the plot, not for recipes, but for the insight into a world that, truly, I find mystifying.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Enchanting Review: Murder Of A Chocolate Covered Cherry
Comment: MURDER OF A CHOCOLATE-COVERED CHERRY
DENISE SWANSON
Contemporary Mystery
Rating: 4 Enchantments
MURDER OF A CHOCOLATE-COVERED CHERRY is the tenth book in Ms. Swanson's 'Scumble River Mysteries' series featuring Skye Denison. This time around Skye finds herself coerced by her mother to enter the Grandma Sal's Soup-to-Nuts Cooking Challenge. A fact made even more amazing when she finds out her mother's entered four recipes, three of which under other family members' names, including Skye's own. Grudgingly, Skye agrees to take part in the contest, knowing no matter how many times she's practiced her recipe, it won't turn out anywhere near her mother's version.
When contestant Cherry Alexander, the same woman who looked to be sabotaging Skye's mother's chances in the competition during the run through is found dead in the chocolate fountain, Skye finds herself investigating a murder while surrounded by far too many suspects. With Cherry's attitude at the Challenge, it could have been any of the contestants who'd drowned the woman in the excessive chocolate fountain, especially with the way she treated her fellow contestants a few short hours before she was discovered dead.
I found MURDER OF A CHOCOLATE-COVERED CHERRY to be an interesting mystery. Set against the backdrop of the Cooking Challenge, there were more than enough logical suspects in the death of the cocky contestant Cherry Alexander. In fact, if not for the hint of Cherry in the title, I was almost sure another character would have been discovered dead in the fountain, given some of the scenes surrounding dear old Grandma Sal herself early in the book. As this was the first book in the 'Scumble River Mysteries' series I'd read, I found myself liking Skye almost immediately and it was easy to become immersed in her world. I loved her meddling mother and her relationship with her family. I look forward to reading more of the series.
Ms. Swanson creates an enjoyable mystery in the tenth book in her popular series. Readers looking for a light, entertaining mystery read won't go wrong picking this one up.
Denise Swanson started writing after coming face-to-face with evil. She quickly decided she would rather write about villains than encounter them in her daily life. She was also shocked to discover that getting a book published was nearly as difficult as vanquishing scoundrels. Her books are set in Scumble River, a fictional small town in the Midwest, and feature Skye Denison, a full-figured school psychologist-sleuth. Visit her online at her website: www.deniseswanson.com
Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
July 2008
Customer Rating:
Summary: another great cute cozy mystery! Scumble River rocks
Comment: I love this series. Every charater is so cute and rich with history in this series.
Simon, bunny , Wally and skye.
Skye's controling mother comes up with a plan, enter a cooking contest using all her recipies and use her children to fulfill that dream.
When they enter the contest finals, differant personalities and conflicts arrive.
A diva accuses May of stealing her secret ingrediant and May goes off!
The next morning this woman is found dead in the fountain of chocolate dip.
Skye investigates her murder, plus a mystery behind a missing teen in the high school.
Skyes love life is a mess as usual and she is dealing with Wally's father showing up unannounced.
I look foward to the next one in the series... what will happen to skye and wally.
will wally go to Texas eventually and get rich?
Will the spook in skye's house accept Wally??
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Series That Gets Better & Better
Comment: I say this every time a new book comes out in this series, but this is the best one yet. Skye is a wonderful character, and I felt like I got to know Skye a lot better in this latest book. I was especially pleased that she has a spiritual side. And would'nt these books would make for a terrific TV mystery series on the Family or Hallmark channels?
Customer Rating:
Summary: good midwest fun
Comment: I enjoyed this book, perhaps because I grew up in Downstate Illinois. It is a dependable series for a great escape during these trying times.
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