Review: Strangled Eggs and Ham by Maddie Day

Posted June 25, 2019 by Lola in Mystery, Review / 6 Comments

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Strangled Eggs and HamStrangled Eggs and Ham (Country Store Mysteries #6)
by Maddie Day

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Cozy mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MF

Blurb:
Robbie Jordan’s rustic country store is growing in popularity. But when a dead body appears, it turns out that Robbie’s home-style cooking attracts hungry customers—and murder!

While Robbie scrambles through breakfast orders for her expanding clientele at Pans ‘N Pancakes, tempers run as high as the sticky August heat in South Lick, Indiana. Real-estate developer Fiona Closs plans to build a towering luxury resort at one of the most scenic hilltops in Brown County, and not everyone can see the sunny side of the imposing proposition—including Robbie’s furious Aunt Adele, who doesn’t waste a minute concocting protests and road blockades. When tensions boil over and a vocal protester is silenced forever at the resort site, Robbie ditches the griddle to catch the killer. But if slashed tires are any indication, she’ll need to crack this case before her own aunt gets served something deadly next . . .

My Review

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

I love this series and am always happy when a new book releases and I can spend some time again with Robbie in her country store Pans and Pancakes. In Strangled Eggs and Ham Robbie has her hands full again, business is going well so she has a lot of work. Then tensions are brewing with a potential new resort coming to town and not everyone is happy with it. And then someone ends up death and the mystery starts in earnest.

I liked the mystery in this book. The tensions with the possible resort felt realistic and with two sides and lots of people having an opinion for or against the resort. I liked how from the start there are 4 main suspects and a few other potential ones, but no one has a solid alibi and at the same time there is no strong evidence pointing to anyone. And that’s how it stays for most of the book, with more clues and information being uncovered, but till the end I wasn’t quite sure who had done it. I was thinking in the right direction and it made sense when the reveals happen at the end.

Besides the solid mystery, I really like the every daily life style of this series. We see Robbie working at her restaurant, biking and just living her life. While it might sound bland, I find it really interesting to read about Robbie’s daily life and how the store is doing. I also like how Robbie isn’t running away from work to investigate, she only investigates on her free day or after her work and sometimes she picks up conversation or clues while she is working.

Robbie is a great main character, she acts responsible and handled the mystery in a smart manner. She rarely runs off anywhere along when she knows it might be dangerous. And she communicates well with the police, who also are quite capable. I like her interactions with the police and how Buck comes to eat at her restaurant quite regularly as well. I also like to read how she handles her business and how her bed and breakfast and her store is doing.

There are a bunch of familiar side characters again and a bunch of new ones who are relevant to the mystery. Robbie’s aunt Adele plays an important role in this book as she’s the leader of the anti resort group and Robbie is afraid she might get herself in danger.

To summarize: this was such a fun read and this continues to be one of my favorite cozy mysteries. This one has a solid mystery and a main character who is likable, smart and capable. There also is enough of Robbie’s daily life and other plot lines sprinkled in. I just enjoy reading about Robbie’s life and her pans and pancake store. I liked how the mystery was set up, there are some main suspects form the start and those stay suspects till the end when you finally find out who did it. All in all another great installment in this series and I am already looking forward to the next book.

4 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
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Amazon
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You can also read my review on Goodreads, Bookbub and Amazon.

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6 responses to “Review: Strangled Eggs and Ham by Maddie Day

  1. Glad a book from a series you really enjoy was so wonderful. She sounds like a great character and I appreciate that she doesn’t suddenly toss aside her work and responsibilities to go sleuthing, she’s smart about danger, and the police are properly involved. I think her daily life activities sound fun to follow along with, too. I’ll have to try this series.
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    • I really like this series and it’s so realistic how she doens’t toss aside her work and responsibilities. And it’s nice to read about a character who is smart about the danger and have the police be actually involved and capable. The daily life actives are really fun to read about too. I hope you give this series a try :). It’s one of my favorite cozies.

  2. Glad to hear the mystery was solid, and the daily life thing doesn’t sound bland to me, I get what you’re saying! It can be interesting. And it’s good to know the cops are actually capable in this series since that makes things a lot more realistic.

    • The daily life parts really work here and are interesting to read about. Incapable cops are one of my pet peeves in cozies, so I was glad the cops here are capable.

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