Book Review: Murder Makes Scents by Christin Brecher

I was in heaven.

I was in Paris.

I was at Cire Trudon, one of the city’s finest candle stores.

Our quirky adventure seeker Stella Wright is back! This time, she’s in Paris and witnesses a murder in broad daylight. Millie, Stella’s mother, is attending a perfume conference in Paris. The mother-daughter bond over croissants, crepes and cafe`. They return to the USA and decide to take a ferry home from Boston. Millie meets her schoolmate Nathaniel and the duo strike a chord immediately. They seem to get along like… um, wick and wax?

Someone breaks into Wick and Flame, Stella’s candle store and that is when the trouble starts. Millie suffers a blow to her head, thanks to her fear of cats (read Tinker). Stella receives a threatening note and is asked to return the secret scent that her mother’s got from Amazon (the jungle, not online shopping site!) Oooo, things are going to get wicked! Fragrantly wicked!

Murder Makes Scents is the second book in Christin Brecher’s Nantucket Candle Maker Cozy Mystery series.

I read the first book in this series – Murder’s No Votive Confidence– and I had enjoyed it a lot. Stella and I have a lot in common. We own are servants to a tuxedo cat; Stella and I are of the same age; we are quirky, funny and sweet. Okay, enough praises about Stella, let’s get back to the review.

Things start slow in Murder Makes Scents. There’s the perfume conference and Paris and everything sweet and nice. Back home, Millie seems to have found a prospective love interest; Stella and Peter are going pretty strong. Everybody is preparing a surprise birthday party for Stella – after all, she’s turning thirty. What can go wrong, right?

A woman in dark clothes is seen around, twice. This piques Stella’s curiosity. When you add a threatening note to this, what you get is Super Spy Stella in action. *Plays James Bond music in the background* Curious Stella digs around and has three suspects in her list – Olive, John Pierre and Laura. She also learns of a certain criminal mastermind named Rex Laruam – the guy wants the secret scent from Amazon.

Murder’s No Votive Confidence was Brecher’s debut novel and as a debut, the book was simply superb. Beyond expectations. Murder Makes Scents is superb too. Like I said before, things start slow but once the story picks up pace, there is no stopping. In fact, you will be flying and paragliding and jumping from mountain tops and scuba diving and whatnot with Stella. Just saying, Stella doesn’t do all these in the story…

Let’s talk about the couples in the story – Andy and his health-conscious girlfriend; Peter and Stella. Andy and Stella know each other since they were kids. Millie comments on how she wished Stella and Andy would date; I totally agree. They get along so well, like ice and water, wax and wick, cat and fur,…

Murder Makes Scents is an enjoyable and interesting read. Stella isn’t as quirky as she was in the previous book; The identity of the criminal mastermind was no secret in the second half but these niggles didn’t stop me from liking this story. Wonderful character portrayal. Suspense and tension run high in the second half of the story. A marvellous ending. In brief, an entertaining cozy mystery! I highly recommend you to read the Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery series.

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Many thanks to Lori Caswell for the Blog Tour Invite.