Murder with Cucumber Sandwiches (Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery #3) by Karen Rose Smith, C.S.E. Cooney (Narrator)

Published May 28th 2019 by Kensington, October 15, 2019 by Tantor Audio

4 Stars:

In the third book in the Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery series, we find restaurant critic, Derek Schumaker, dead after ingesting food he purchased at the Tea Garden. It seems someone added something extra to his food that killed him. Was it someone who works for Daisy? They are all under suspicion, so of course, Daisy begins her own investigation to make sure all her employees are cleared. While dealing with this, she is also dealing with a couple of personal family situations. She seems to do it all, even running a business, all with a smile.

I like the setting of this series. Willow Creek, Pennsylvania is a quaint town populated by a variety of characters. You have some quirky ones to add a bit of humour as well as some businesslike and annoying one. Karen Rose Smith does a great job writing multi-dimensional characters that are quite realistic. I do enjoy Daisy. She is a good protagonist, smart, business savvy, loyal to family, friends and employees and extremely personable. In turn, her employees are very loyal to her. She ans Jonas (a local detective) are moving forward in their relationship and I like how they are moving slowly. Both her daughters, Jazzy and Violet, are dealing with issues in this book and Daisy, being a great mom, deals with them in very loving and tactful ways. The mystery was well written. There were a lot of people who were unhappy with the victim, but would they kill him. It took a lot of questioning and sleuthing to uncover some of the suspects. The motive involves greed, jealousy and trust which made it hard to sift through all the clues, which were there, but not obvious. The final showdown was quick, but satisfying. I did not suspect the culprit at all. Another satisfying story in this series.

I listened to the audiobook of Murder With Cucumber Sandwiches narrated by C.S.E. Cooney. I have listened to other books narrated by this voice actress and enjoy her voice. She does a good job with the female voices, but the male voices need work. Her expression and intonation are well done and, as I have said before, I will listen to more books narrated by by this voice actress. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book upon request. The rating, ideas and solutions shared are my own.

Murder with Cucumber Sandwiches (Daisy's Tea Garden Mystery #3)About the Book: Restaurant critic Derek Schumaker, notorious for his bitter reviews, is about to visit Daisy’s Tea Garden, and Daisy and Aunt Iris are simmering with anxiety. A bad word from the culinary curmudgeon could really hurt their business, but Daisy tries to stay confident. After all, how can he resist her cucumber sandwiches with pimento spread — not to mention the cheesy cauliflower soup and strawberry walnut salad? Schumaker takes a to-go order when the afternoon tea service is done, which Daisy hopes is a good sign. But when he perishes from a seizure, it looks like his food was dosed with something deadly. Considering a threat that recently appeared on his blog — and whispers of scandal in his past — Daisy has quite an assortment of suspects to sift through…