Masher of Ceremonies: A Vintage Kitchen Mystery
by Victoria Hamilton
About Masher of Ceremonies
A fundraiser for the local historical society nearly goes bust when someone fills the coffers with blackmail and murder . . .
The annual Tea With the Queen fundraiser always makes for a festive weekend in Queensville, drawing visitors from far and wide and giving local shops a welcome boost. This year, vintage kitchenware collector Jaymie Müller is running the event, and she’s got her hands full organizing old and new volunteers along with a surly catering crew. Then her master of ceremonies tells her he’s being blackmailed but can’t go to the police, and before Jaymie can sort that out she stumbles over a dead body at the tea.
Despite the demands of keeping the event up and running, Jaymie can’t help puzzling over the murder. There’s no concrete evidence linking the cretin behind the blackmail scheme to the dead body, so she begins questioning everyone connected to the blackmail, hoping to expose the killer. And just as she discovers a web of relationships that leads her to the culprit, she realizes that the Tea With the Queen may have been a royal pain, but outwitting a blackmailer and catching a killer may be the death of her . . .
Includes a vintage recipe!
What I Thought:
This is the 13th in the Vintage Kitchen Mystery Series. I have read some in this series, but not all. But I did not feel like I was lost, so this could be read as a standalone mystery. The plotline caught my interest from the very beginning and kept it through out. I thought the mystery was well plotted and flowed well. Jaymie is in charge of the Tea with the Queen event in her hometown of Queensville. She enlists the help of Nigel Dudley who bought the home where the tea is always held. An old boyfriend of his comes to town to cause trouble and Nigel asks Jaymie to talk to him. When Nigel's assistant is found deceased right after the end of the tea with the Queen event, Jaymie of course gets embroiled in the investigation. I enjoyed this mystery. It had been some time since I visited with Jaymie and her friends in Queensville, and I had an enjoyable time revisiting them. Jaymie is a great protagonist. As I said this flowed well and it kept me guessing till the end. It was an easy and fast read. I like the setting and the old and some of the new characters. I look forward to more in this series. I received a complimentary copy of this book.
About Victoria Hamilton
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of three mystery series, the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries. She also writes a Regency-set historical mystery series, starting with A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder. Visit her website at victoriahamiltonmysteries.com.
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