[review] An Eggnog to Die For by Amy Pershing

An Eggnog to Die For is the second book in Amy Pershing’s Cape Cod Foodie Mystery series set in Fair Harbor and featuring food writer Sam Barnes.

Title: An Eggnog to Die For
Author: Amy Pershing
Series: Cape Cod Foodie Mystery #2
First Published: November 9, 2021
Publisher: Berkley Books
Genres: Mystery, 
Acquired: from the publisher via Netgalley

*** Thank you to Berkley Books, for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***

Food writer Sam Barnes wants a lot of things: a quiet Christmas at home with her dog and the town’s handsome harbormaster, to never be in a viral video again, and to stop finding dead bodies. Unfortunately for Sam, her parents are coming to visit, she’s often around cameras for work, and she just found the town Santa dead in the storage room of the cocktail bar she was profiling.

Although she was only interviewing the owners of the Ginger Jar in hopes of getting the recipe for their Coquito Eggnog cocktail for the friends and family Christmas Eve dinner she’s hosting, Sam quickly finds herself taking on the role of investigator once again. She needs to find out who slayed this Santa—but with holiday stress already building, will Sam be able to pull off a perfect feast and nab a killer?

An Eggnog to Die For has a great cast of characters

Food writer Samantha ‘Sam’ Barnes is a really enjoyable character and I clicked with her from the start. Sam is really smart, persistent and has a great sense of humour, all of which makes for a great amateur sleuth.

There are lots of other memorable characters throughout the story, including Sam’s parents who have arrived from Florida unexpectedly, Sam’s boyfriend Jack, and Julie and Martin Bruni, the brother and sister team who own the popular The Ginger Jar restaurant.

I haven’t read the first book in the Cape Cod Foodie Mysteries yet (a fact that I will be changing as soon as I can get my hands on the first book, A Side of Murder) so I’m not sure which characters had already been introduced and which ones were new to this book but An Eggnog to Die For reads fine as a stand-alone book.

I think most of us can relate to how busy it gets around the holidays – there’s so much to do and not enough time to get everything done. Sam is no exception. Aside from having to drive her parents around town, Sam also has to keep working (writing and making videos), PLUS attend a list of festive celebrations PLUS cook a huge Christmas Eve dinner for her family and friends. Whew! 

Of course, to add to the mayhem, Sam discovers a dead body at The Ginger Jar restaurant and that adds a whole new batch of tasks to our amateur sleuth’s To-Do list! 

A festive murder mystery

The story was well-paced and there were lots of clues and red herrings to make the reader try and figure out who the real killer was. In fact there were several twists and turns that were a bit unexpected and made the story more interesting. Sam was going around in circles for a bit and I have to admit I was also led down the wrong path more than once!

I think perhaps I was distracted by the food? LOL. Some of my long-time readers will know I used to run a food blog so food (and writing about food) is a big distraction for me and there were lots of mouth-watering food descriptions in this book to keep me hungry! The recipes included in the back were a nice bonus and definitely included some dishes I’m itching to try, like Braised Leeks with Parmesan and Blender Chocolate Mousse!

An Eggnog to Die For was a a very fun cozy mystery that was the perfect holiday read. I can’t wait to see what Sam Barnes gets up to next, but for now, pass me a cup of Eggnog and let’s enjoy the holidays!

Read An Eggnog to Die For for yourself

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