A Clue in the Stew - Blog Tour Review + Giveaway

A Clue in the Stew (A Soup Lover's Mystery) by Connie Archer Rating:Very Good
Source: Blog Tour

Description:  When Lucky Jamieson opens up By the Spoonful to host an event with a famous author, she's not expecting a bunch of nuts to descend on her small town soup shop.  But the author's exasperating entourage - from a prickly publicist to a snippy son and a tipsy wife - give fresh meaning to the phrase, too many cooks spoil the broth.
The evening is more than spoiled, however, when it ends with a homicide.  When the manner of the murder - as well as another unsolved crime - echos the author's fiction, Police Chief Nate Edgerton realizes he has a copycat killer on his hands.  And Lucky hopes that one of her regular customers whose mysteriously gone missing isn't involved.  Once again, the soup shop owner will need to stir up some clues to find her friend and catch a cunning killer - before things take a tureen for the worse... (from Goodreads)

Genre: Mystery

Why I Picked This Book:  I enjoyed the last book in the series and I liked that this one involved an author and book event.

My Impression:  I expected to enjoy this latest Soup Lover's Mystery because I had enjoyed the previous book but I didn't really expect to become so immediately hooked on the story.  I loved the character but even more I wanted to know what happened next!  Cozy mysteries are definitely one of my preferred genres and add food to the murder and I'm even more interested.  That being said I'm pretty picky with them - particularly if the main character is an amateur detective which is the case here.  There has to be a reason that the character is investigating and she has to behave like a mostly rational adult.  In this case I didn't really hold Lucky to the same standard because I couldn't wait to solve the mystery.  She could've gone on a crime spree to find the answers and I would have been perfectly okay with it (she didn't though - she did follow the rules for the most part though she is a bit in the nosy territory).

I loved seeing more of Lucky and the rest of the residents of Snowflake, Vermont.  I really liked Sophie and Sage in the previous book so I enjoyed catching up with them as well as Lucky's grandfather, Jack, and her boyfriend, Elias.  Nate is back as the Police Chief and once again is a capable and intelligent investigator who periodically resists the urge to strangle Lucky without being more than exasperated about it.  While Lucky's restaurant, By The Spoonful, is a big part of the story it isn't unnecessary.  It provides a background for collecting information regarding the murders and a setting for the conflict with the new waitress Nannette.
The mystery itself is really interesting.  There's all kinds of secrets and jealousies.  There's plenty of motives and any number of subjects.  I absolutely loved the forming of the Murder Investigation Club and that all the people involved were really willing to share information and actually listen to each other. It made it feel like Lucky wasn't just investigating out on her own. I usually figure out the mystery ahead of time but I really didn't in this one.  Until the reveal there were multiple theories that would fit the crime and I wasn't sure which one it would be.
I thoroughly enjoyed this latest mystery from Connie Archer.  I didn't read it in one sitting but I would have if I could have gotten away with it!  I'm glad I've got the first couple of books in this series to read so I won't have to wait until the next release to visit Snowflake and spend time with Lucky, Sage, Jack, Sophie and everyone else.

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Would I Read More of this Series/Author?: Definitely!  I've already got the first book in the series sitting on my shelf so I can read that while I'm waiting for the next one!

Would I Recommend this Book?: Yes!  This was a really fun cozy mystery and more calorie friendly as it will make you want to eat a big steaming bowl of soup which is better for you than the usual cake or chocolate!