Book Review: Macaroons and Mayhem by Agatha Frost

A prestigious garden magazine picks Peridale as its spotlight for its next issue. There’s also a grand prize for the best garden in Peridale. Emily, Julia’s nosy neighbour is excited about the ‘grand prize’ and her newly elected position at the Peridale Green Fingers.

Johnny, Julia’s classmate and a reporter at the local newspaper, approaches Julia saying that there’s something fishy going on at Peridale Green Fingers. Two of its founding members died recently. Their obituaries reached the newspaper a day before they were found dead. Johnny believes that the two were murdered but the cops are not ready to believe him. Julia doesn’t believe him until she finds a third Green Finger member dead.

The killer seems to have set their eyes on killing every founding member of the gardening group but why? Julia investigates.

Macaroons and Mayhem is the 7th book in Agatha Frost’s Peridale Café Cozy Mystery series.

A renowned magazine in Peridale, a grand prize of 10k and murders – woohoo, Agatha Frost has done an excellent job in keeping the readers hooked onto this seventh installment of the Peridale Cafe series.

With each book in the series, you get to read something different. The spotlight is one resident of Peridale. The nosy and gossipy peeps of Peridale have a lot of secrets that are yet to be unearthed. And with each book, Julia discovers more and more about her neighbours.

In this book, we get to meet Johnny. The local reporter who still has a school-boy crush on Julia. Barker, you are in for some competition here buddy! In the previous book, Barker and Julia’s relationship seems a tad strained, thanks to Jerrad – Julia’s (ex)husband. Jessie and Billy’s relationship is no longer a hush-hush affair now. Her quirkiness, Grandma Dot, is forced to join Peridale Green Fingers loves gardening.

Something sinister is in play in Peridale. After Chocolate Cake and Chaos, this is the second book in the series that has an essence of darkness and evil in it. Senile founders of the Green Fingers – why does the killer want them dead? There are a couple of red herrings and twists that keeps one wanting to know what-happens-next?

The identity of the murderer was totally unexpected! Julia finally realizes who the killer is and boy oh boy! and there’s a bit of a drama-sequence in the end. I am a huge fan of Agatha Frost’s writing. This is the seventh book of Frost’s that I have read and I have liked them all.

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