Fondue or Die by Korina Moss

Item: Fondue or Die
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted October 15, 2024 by karenbaron in #BookishRecipe, Mystery, Review, Series / 1 Comment

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Fondue or Die

by Korina Moss

Series: Cheese Shop Mysteries #5
Series Rating:

Published by St. Martin's Paperbacks on October 22, 2024
Setting: Yarrow Glen, California
Genres: Cozy Culinary Mystery
Pages: 298
Format: Kindle, Paperback
Source: the Publisher
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon

The lazy, hazy, dairy days of summer are coming to a close in the Sonoma Valley. . . and so is someone’s life.

The small town of Yarrow Glen’s neighbor, Lockwood, hosts an annual Labor Day weekend bash: Dairy Days. And Willa Bauer and her cheese shop, Curds & Whey, refuse to miss out on the fun. Willa is thrilled to celebrate her favorite thing—she is a cheesemonger after all—and this festival goes all out: butter sculptures, goat races, cheese wheel relays, even a Miss Dairy pageant. Too bad the pageant runner, Nadine, is treating Dairy Days prep like it’s fondue or die and is putting everyone around her on edge. When Willa finds Nadine’s dead body under years’ worth of ceramic milk jugs, the police aren’t sure whether the death was an accident. But fingers are pointing at Willa’s employee, Mrs. Schultz, who steps in to help the pageant after Nadine’s death. Someone wanted Nadine out of the whey, and Willa is going to find out who.

Fondue or Die by Korina Moss is a cheesy-filled mystery.

Can Team Cheese solve the mystery?

Willa Bauer

Willa Bauer is our sleuth, and she’s honestly a hoot. She’s not afraid to speak her mind and go head-first into solving a mystery. Even if she has been told not to get involved if a friend of hers is in the crosshairs, Willa will stand by said friend.

I honestly love that Willa cares about her friends enough to try to solve mysteries for them. Another thing that I like is her love for cheese. It’s a wonder she can’t be tired from eating so much of it or being around it all the time. Willa is a sweet person, and I like the home she has made for herself in Yarrow Glen.

Team Cheese

Willa’s circle of friends have dubbed themselves Team Cheese, and they solve the mysteries together. Well, the ones that Willa finds herself stuck in the middle of. They are Mrs. Schultz, Archie, and Baz. Mrs. Schultz is a retired high school drama teacher, and she’s so much fun to read. The main reason is that she loves seeing the positive side of things and doesn’t want to think the worst of anyone until she has the proof. Mrs. Schultz also works part-time at Curds & Whey. Another employee of Curds & Whey is Archie, and he’s very interested in learning about the cheese business. Archie is a great guy trying to find his footing in the world, and I think he has found it at Willa’s shop. Lastly, Baz is Willa’s next-door neighbor and another great addition to the team. Baz is a handyman and also does small jobs around the town.

Team Cheese is such an integral part for Willa to bounce ideas off of and to help her solve a mystery.

The Mystery

Willa finds Nadine dead after witnessing quite an outburst of argument between Nadine and a judge. Team Cheese has their work cut out for them as the case leads them to clues of a cold case. What does that have to do with this murder now? Willa is trying her hardest to figure everything out before Dairy Days is over so that none of their suspects leave the area, making it more challenging to solve. I have to say that I had a feeling of who and why they did it, but I also hoped that I was wrong.

Five Stars

Fondue or Die by Korina Moss is my first book in this series and I loved every minute of it. Ms. Moss does a fantastic job of keeping me guessing about who could have done it. My rating for Fondue or Die by Kornia Moss is five stars and I wholeheartedly recommend this series.

Remember to check out the three recipes in the back of the book: Pimento Cheese Sandwich, Extra-Cheesy Alfredo, and Fall Fondue. I might have to try that Pimento Cheese Sandwich recipe.

Cheese Shop Mysteries

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Fondue or Die by Korina Moss.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

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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.

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: