A Half-Baked Murder - A Review

 Review

A HALF-BAKED MURDER by Emily George
The First Cannabis Cafe Mystery 

With her engagement broken and career in tatters pastry chef Chloe Barnes flees Paris to return to California to care for her grandmother who has just been diagnosed with cancer. Reluctant to follow her doctor's recommendation to use cannabis to ease the side effects of chemotherapy Chloe takes up the challenge to make it more palatable, making high end brownies with a special ingredient. When her aunt comes up with a unique business idea, Chloe is tempted, but has a run in with an old elementary school bully. When he winds up dead and her aunt a suspect, Chloe finds herself looking for clues as well as creating recipes and contemplating a new business.

I really liked meeting Chloe in the first Cannabis Cafe Mystery. She's approachable, caring, and real. A shining pastry chef star who, through a disastrous chain of events flees Paris and returns home to Azalea Bay to start over and perhaps find her true purpose in life. I like how she's hesitant to embrace her aunt's concept, but when she does, I love how she follows through. Grandma Rose is wonderful with her burgeoning romantic relationship and I love Aunt Dawn, free wheeling and spontaneous, but with a secret. Incorporating unique hobbies such as dog dancing and Dungeons and Dragons add to the fun.

Though completely cozy A HALF-BAKED MURDER has some more worldly components. Normalizing the use of marijuana might even be considered avant-garde. Add bullying, sexual harassment, as well as other timely subjects, and the book becomes even more pertinent to today's readers. As for the murder, I'm always happy when a thoroughly bad person becomes the murder victim and such is the case here.

I am not a smoker or a midnight toker, but the idea of high end pastry infused with cannabis as a way to ease my arthritis pain is compelling. I appreciate the way cannabis use is handled, the realization that there is a stigma surrounding its use, despite it being legal, as well as the professional ways it can be sold and ingested. Though it is a fictional novel, the information appears well researched and valid. I especially like the warning to use responsibly and the fact that Chloe had all the guests at her "special" dinner arrange transportation so that no one imbibing would be driving.

A HALF-BAKED MURDER is a culinary mystery with a contemporary twist. Giving a fresh look to murder mysteries this book is a fantastic start to what promises to be a great new series.