Fruit Cake and Fear by Agatha Frost

A storm hits Peridale and Barker’s cottage is destroyed. Julia asks him to move in with her until his house is repaired. But Barker has his quirks and Jessie is not liking it! From toilet seat up to not putting his underwear in the laundry basket, Jessie and Barker fight like cat and dog!

The storm creates quite a stir in Peridale. Julia discovers a secret basement underneath her café. As Jessie and Julia go in to survey, they find a skeleton. Julia knows whose it is – Evelyn’s daughter, Astrid, had disappeared twenty years ago. And now, Julia finds her body in the cafe’s basement!! Did someone trap the poor girl in the basement and left her to die? If so, then the killer must still be lurking around in Peridale!

Evelyn might be weird (with her tarots and seances) but Julia likes her. Evelyn asks Julia to find out her daughter’s murderer. As Julia pokes her nose around, something happens to someone close to Julia. Will Julia be able to save them before it is too late?

Fruit Cake and Fear is the 8th book in the Peridale Café Cozy Mystery Series.

Woohoo! Peridale Café Cozy Mystery Series is one of my favourite cozy series! Each book in this series has something surprising to offer to the readers. And this book was no different!

The storm unearths some dark secrets. From Barker and Jessie’s fights and Julia being fed up of it to finding a body underneath the café, Fruit Cake and Fear by Agatha Frost is a page-turner.

It goes without saying that Grandma Dot is up to her usual quirky self! Well, the toilet seat up or down is one issue that can never be solved. A universal problem? 😉 Like any other gossipy village, in Peridale too, tongues wag when Barker moves in with Julia. Like Julia cares about what other people think of her!!

If you want to give this series a try, I recommend you to start from book #1. Though these can be read as standalone, it would be better to read it from the start. Julia, Jessie, Barker, Billy, Grandma Dot and many more – you get to know more about each one of these as the series proceeds.

I am going to be a bit partial here and say that my favourite character is Grandma Dot. She’s absolutely hilarious! She’s like this cool-dude quirky grandma!! 😀 Next comes Julia. She’s had a tough life and she’s finally happy with her café, Jessie, and Barker. No matter how many hurdles come across her path, she moves ahead with courage.

When Evelyn asks Julia to investigate – it’s no secret that Julia has solved many cases in the past couple of months – Julia cannot say no. Finding Astrid’s body leads Julia to Astrid’s then-boyfriend Aiden. Aiden was initially suspected of killing her but was let go due to lack of evidence.

With the battering rain, Julia is in tears when someone she loves dearly disappears. Everybody is searching for the missing person high and low – the story gets really interesting here. Julia has a light-bulb moment but… *No spoilers*  😀

Peridale Café Series is perfect for a binge reading spree! If you haven’t come across this series then you do not know what you are missing! If you like cozy mysteries then do give this series a try! 🙂

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