Title: Pineapple Upside Down Murder
Author: Jodi Rath
Publication Date: 23rd November 2018
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Pineapple Upside Down Murder is a cute cozy mystery by Jodi Rath. The story starts with Jolie Tucker, a culinary queen who co-owns the restaurant – Cast Iron Creations. While Jolie’s friend, Ava, took care of the finances, Jolie was focused on all the cooking and baking. Jolie starts hyperventilating when the Tucker family recipes are stolen. Jolie’s great-grandfather had carved a wooden box for the recipes and the box, along with the recipes had been passed down through generations. Now that the box is stolen, Jolie is hysterical. Ava tries to calm her down when Roxi, the part-time help at the shop, discovers a dead body at the alley behind the shop.
The body is that of Ellie Siler, the lady who owns the local sweet shop – Chocolate Capers. Grandma Opal, Jolie’s grandmother is devastated on hearing the news that her best friend is dead. And what is more shocking is that Miss Siler was murdered.
The story has many twists and turns. With grandma Opal being arrested for the murder of her friend to the family recipes speculated to be stolen from Ellie, the story just gets better and better.
There are a lot of characters in the book – Jolie and her childhood friends – Betsy, Ava, Lydia, Bradley, and Keith; grandma Opal and her two daughters, Ava’s girlfriend Delilah, Rex and Roxi – siblings. When I started reading the book, I wasn’t very sure of why so many characters are needed in a novella. The book has just 85 pages and with these many characters, I just didn’t know what to expect. But I was wrong. The author has beautifully concocted little stories from each of these characters, making the story even more interesting.
Jolie’s suspect list is long. It includes one or two of her childhood friends and she cannot seem to point out as to why would they murder Ellie. The characters also seem to be having issues of their own. In the end, it all makes sense! With a dollop of romance and a movie-like scene (when the identity of the perp is revealed), the book was a good read.
Ava and Jolie’s friendship was well portrayed. And so was their relationship with their other childhood friends. Grandma Opal was such a cutie pie! The characters are either quirky or weird. The identity of perp was shocking and unexpected. But the ending steals the show. Detective Meiser plays a very interesting role in the story, especially in the end.
Overall, it was a good read. I liked the story. For all the baking enthusiasts, there’s a recipe at the end.
Thank you, Lori Caswell, from Escape From Dollycas and Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for giving me an opportunity to be a part of this blog tour.
The Book Decoder 
I wanted to take a moment to thank you SO much for having me on your blog and providing an honest review of my book! So far, you are the only one who has rated my book the EXACT way I would rate it! LOL! I was terrified to take the leap from writing NF to fiction and doing it as an indie writer! I have a notebook dedicated to jotting down notes from reviews to help better my writing with future books in the series, and I have noted every single thing you listed! Thank you so much for taking your time to read and review it! Happy holidays to everyone! Jodi Rath
Thank you so much, Jodi. 🙂 Happy holidays to you too.