Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant by Darci Hannah Narrator: Amy Melissa Bentley
Series: Beacon Bakeshop #4
Published by Tantor Audio on July 25, 2023
Source: Purchased
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Length: 8 hrs 59 mins
Pages: 352
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Audible
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It’s Halloween weekend and Beacon Harbor, Michigan, has a packed schedule of events, including the Pumpkin Pageant, featuring humans and their canine counterparts. For treats, there’s plenty of pumpkin goodness from bakery/café owner and local lighthouse resident Lindsey Bakewell. But someone wants to spoil the fun with a deadly trick . . .
Lindsey prefers to keep her bakeshop’s Halloween decor light and autumnal, rather than gruesome and ghoulish. But everyone knows her lighthouse home is haunted. Some intrepid teens have even tried to break in to witness the resident ghost themselves. Dreading Halloween night, Lindsey reluctantly allows her influencer and podcaster best friend, Kennedy, to host a live ghost-hunting investigation in the lighthouse, conducted by a professional team. Protective of her ghost, Lyndsey is understandably nervous about what they might uncover . . .
The segment is uneventful—until things take a terrifying turn. The team freaks out. As Kennedy joins the mad dash outside, she bumps into what looks like the prankster teens’ creepy clown costume hanging from a tree. But when Lindsey’s dog, Wellington, begins to whine, they make a grim discovery: the clown is no dummy. It’s a corpse.
Now Lindsey and company will need to keep their cool if they want a ghost of a chance to solve the murder—and see another Halloween . . .
First of all, Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant has me craving fall baked goods – pumpkin donuts, pumpkin spice cheesecake, pumpkin scones. And apple dumplings, but those weren’t in the book.
Lindsey runs her bakery out of a remodeled lighthouse and lives in the keeper’s section. It’s Halloween and in addition to the town festivities, Lindsey’s best friend, Kennedy, has invited the Ghost Guys to come to the lighthouse to film an episode for their show. Lindsey knows the lighthouse is haunted, which makes her even more nervous about the Guys showing up with all their equipment and tech gadgets. The whole things goes horribly awry when a local teacher is found dead, hanging from a tree just outside of the lighthouse.
This is the third in the series I’ve read. I like Lindsey and her family and friends a lot. They’re caring, loyal, and the appropriate amount of quirky. The mystery is well done with plenty of clues, suspects, and red herrings. I liked how well the plot fit with the lighthouse and its history, too.
It’s a perfect fall read, with costumes, tricks, and treats. It’s funny and a just a bit spooky.
About Darci Hannah
