Curds of Prey by Korina Moss Narrator: Erin Moon
Series: The Cheese Shop Mysteries #3
Published by Blackstone Publishing on April 4, 2023
Source: Purchased
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Length: 9 hrs 13 mins
Pages: 336
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Audible
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n Korina Moss's Curds of Prey, murder again comes to Yarrow Glen, and cheesemonger Willa Bauer must be the predator… before she becomes the prey.
Yarrow Glen's favorite cheese shop, Curds & Whey, gets to be a part of the social event of the Summer Harrington’s wedding. Cheesemonger Willa Bauer is going all out for the wedding shower’s cheese bar. But the eagle-eyed Harrington family is proving to be a pain in her asiago. A last-minute tasting ends in disaster when one of Willa’s potential beaux, Roman, gets in a fight with the groom. Then the shower arrives, and while there’s anything but love in the air, there is plenty of cheese. Oh, and Roman... again. The day officially ends in disaster when Willa finds the groom―who also happens to be the mayor’s nephew―in the stable, dead as a dodo. At the mayor’s request, Willa must follow the trail of cheese curds to find a killer while continuing to walk a tightrope between two of Sonoma Valley’s most powerful families.
Yep, Cheesemonger Willa Bauer has found another dead body. This time around, the murdered man is Nelson Trumbull, the nephew of the mayor and the fiancé of Summer Harrington, whose parents are the wealthy and influential new owners of All Things Sonoma magazine. He was killed at Summer’s bridal shower, where Willa was providing the cheese bar, and Roman becomes a chief suspect. Roman, it turns out, dumped Summer at the altar a few years earlier and was seen arguing with Nelson. And he doesn’t have an alibi.
The mystery was well-paced and the new characters fit well or at least as well as entitled rich people can in a cozy mystery. We have several clues and potential suspects, but Willa definitely has to watch her step. It’s not only her own reputation (and life) at risk, but also her shop, if she understands Mrs. Harrington’s threats correctly.
The characters are great. Willa is warm, friendly, and definitely growing as a sleuth. The recurring supporting cast, including Willa’s staff, her best friend Baz, and the local shopkeepers all make appearances throughout the book and I like how several of them are being developed more.
This book, set right before Valentine’s Day, brings in some romantic drama for Willa as well as others in her team, but I like the way the relationships are going. And the focus definitely stays on the mystery, which I appreciate.
I’m a little sad that the fourth isn’t currently available on audiobook. I’ve been enjoying the stories narrated by Erin Moon. I’m interested in the characters enough to pick it up in paperback though. And I love all the delicious cheesy food.
About Korina Moss
KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop cozy mystery series set in Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner of the Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead. Her books have been featured in USA Today, PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World Magazine, AARP Magazine, and Fresh Fiction. She loves creating quirky characters who live in idyllic small towns. She grew up on a healthy dose of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie novels, which developed her passion for solving mysteries and eventually writing her own. She lives in a small New England town with its own share of quirky characters.
Korina is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. She blogs on Writers Who Kill.
For the past several years, Korina has been on her own Eat, Pray, Love journey, which seems to have stalled at the Eat phase. When not writing or sampling new cheeses (a perk of the job), she can be found with a new favorite cozy, doing jigsaw puzzles, or discovering new travel destinations. She has an affinity (some might say ‘addiction’) to coffee mugs, loves cats, and can’t pass up a new notebook or journal with all those fresh, empty pages.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
I have this series on my TBR. It sounds really good.
It’s a fun one. And the recipes at the back are ones I might actually try one day.
I haven’t come across this series but will keep an eye out for it. It reminds me of the editorial meetings I used to attend: it was amazing how good some people were at coming up with these punny titles (I was terrible). I think sometimes they came up with them in advance of the author’s next book! However, sometimes the author and his or her family were the clever ones.
I have to admit I love the puns. I would be terrible at coming up with them though.
This sounds delightful