[Book Review] Death By Chocolate Frosted Doughnut By Sarah Graves & Jim’s Organic Coffee Double Chocolate Coffee

Title: Death by Chocolate Frosted Doughnut
Series: A Death by Chocolate Mystery #3
Author: Sarah Graves
Publication date: February 25th 2020
Page Count: 288 pages
Age Rating: Young Adult & Up (blood, violence, and death)
How I got my hot little hands on it: Received a copy to review
Publisher’s page: Death By Chocolate Frosted Doughnut

When a pirate festival blows into their small town, bakeshop owners Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and her best friend Ellie White expect they’ll be busy baking up a storm, but instead they find themselves marooned in a new murder investigation after someone kills a well-known food writer and TV personality . . .

Everything is shipshape at Jake and Ellie’s new waterfront bakery, The Chocolate Moose, especially now that the annual Pirate Festival is dropping anchor in their quaint island village of Eastport, Maine. Jake and Ellie are ready for the bounty of tourists sure to flood their shop. But their plans quickly sink when the body of celebrity foodie, Henry Hadlyme, is discovered in the Moose’s basement.

Jake and Ellie are horrified, but their shock turns to dismay when Jake is pegged for the murder. Now, to clear Jake’s name and save the shop, Jake and Ellie must swashbuckle down and figure out who among Henry’s numerous enemies scuttled him in the cellar. Was it a long-ago jilted sweetheart’s vengeful relative? His long-suffering personal assistant? Or perhaps some bitter-as-dark-chocolate unknown enemy, now aboard the mysterious ship lurking in Eastport’s harbor?

Alas, dead men tell no tales, so Jake and Ellie will have to get to the bottom of the case on their own and find the real killer before anyone else is forced to walk the plank . . .

My Review

First, the bad news: nobody dies by chocolate frosted doughnut in this book. I know, I know, I was a little disappointed too. But, on the up side, the death that does take place is pirate-themed, so that makes up for it.

In the midst of a popular pirate festival that brings in much needed tourism and sales to the small waterfront community of Eastport, a somewhat famous food critic comes to town and starts immediately alienating everyone, which doesn’t end well for him. When his body is found in the cellar of Jacobia (Jake) & Ellie’s chocolate-themed bakery, The Chocolate Moose, Jake is pinned as the prime suspect in his murder.

What follows is the longest, most action-packed, two days of anyone’s life as Jake and Ellie get up to all kinds of trouble on land and sea, determined to clear Jake’s name and find the real killer.

When I say action-packed, I mean packed by the way. While some parts did drag a bit, I don’t know how everything that happened fit in only 2 days; it’s like time and space lost all meaning. Also, I’m not sure how Jake was still standing by the end of it. This woman fell down a set of stairs, hit her head hard enough to pass out, fell off a cliff into freezing water littered with rocks, was knocked out a few more times, and fell into the freezing Maine water a few more times – and she just stubbornly kept going right to the end.

Death by Chocolate Frosted Doughnut is the first I’ve read in the Death by Chocolate series and the author does a great job of giving you just enough info so you never feel lost without bogging you down with unneeded backstory. While this book can easily be read as a standalone, it made me very interested in reading the others in the series and i’m sure i’ll be back for more (I’ve been having a cozy cafe mystery moment lately and this book really satisfied that craving).

Speaking of cravings, Death by Chocolate Frosted Doughnut made me crave chocolate so bad. In between murder, mayhem, and shenanigans, Jake & Ellie found time to return to their bakery and whip up chocolate treats multiple times and the detailed descriptions given sounded delicious.

To satisfy the absolute need for chocolate this book conjures up I recommend Jim’s Organic Coffee Double Chocolate Coffee – it’s a very light, mellow coffee with a simply gorgeous chocolate taste. (side note: there’s a recipe for double-chocolate ginger cookies at the end of the book, which I didn’t make, but I feel would also pair amazingly well with this double chocolate coffee).