Devil's Food Cake (Culinary Mysteries)

This is another great story by Kilpack. She’s a gifted author and the story line has unexpected twists. Not your average mystery, very unpredictable and entertaining.

I'm basing my 5-star rating on Josi Kilpack's novel, as measured against her other books I have read. I think this one is, by far, my favorite. In this book, Sadie Hoffmiller, the retired school-teacher widow heroine of Ms Kilpack's books, seems like a more relatable character. She stands up for herself more, gets her feelings hurt (justifiably so) more, and starts thinking that maybe there's more to life than just having one boyfriend to boss her around. The mystery action is very compact--one whirlwind night, which keeps the plot moving very quickly. Despite the compact time element, the story is complex and fun to follow as Sadie and an ever-growing cast of tag-alongs unravel this delightful mystery. I enjoyed the book very much. I'm actually thinking about trying a couple of the recipes in this one, too!

I gave "Lemon Tart" and "English Trifle" four stars. So it is with this book. I'll explain. "Devil's Food Cake" will leave you craving a piece. This is the first time I have been inspired during my reading of this Culinary Mystery Series to attempt making any of the many recipes included in these fun stories for myself. "Killer Nachos" and "Evil Chicken" both sounded so good I decided to give them a try and they both turned out well. I'd never tried toasting chips for nachos in the oven before, then spreading the seasoned meat, toppings and cheese layering it like a casserole before additional baking in the oven and was quite pleased with the result. I recommend it as a good party dish to feed a crowd. Sadie's chicken dish is "Evil" because you don't drain the grease after frying both bacon and the chicken together in the pan. Incredibly fattening, the author warns, but it's also incredibly simple to make since you just add chili powder while browning the meat and add brown sugar last giving it an almost caramel glaze. Ladled over plain white rice, it reminded me of something you might order at Panda Express. Except I used my family's rice pilaf recipe, Sadie, if you'd like to borrow it! So, of course, I had to make the featured book cover dessert as well. My apologies to anyone who does not have a grocery store supermarket chain like WinCo in your state or area because I absolutely love shopping there and take advantage of their fabulous bulk bin items on a weekly basis. The brown sugar for "Evil Chicken" came from their bins because living in Utah and living alone, if you buy a whole bag of brown sugar the remainder will quickly turn into a hard rock if you don't use it all up fast which I never do. That's why I recommend WinCo which also just happened to have tortilla chips at discounted prices which I needed for "Killer Nachos." Long grain white rice can also be purchased from WinCo bins and they have great produce, like tomatoes, for the nachos with better prices than other places. Shameless plug-you're welcome, WinCo! I'd never made a cake completely from scratch like this before, always Betty Crocker mixes and always when they were on sale, so whipping up the featured recipe which includes the homemade "Chocolicious Frosting" and wanting it to look exactly like the cover picture took a good part of the day but it was worth it. The cake turned out to be dense, a bit dry, (I blame Utah climate) but VERY chocolatey. I got a small block of semi-sweet chocolate too (thx WinCo!) for the chocolate shavings sprinkled over the frosting just like the picture. Both cake and the frosting call for a LOT of cocoa powder which you can also get from the bins at WinCo but I just picked up a canister of Hershey's. Ok, let's review the plot and character development of Josi Kilpack's "Devil's Food Cake." We open with Sadie sitting at a table at a fundraising dinner that she helped put together and organize. Most of the dinner was catered but she'd been volunteered to provide her delicious Devil's Food Cake for dessert and got her adopted son, Shawn, to help her finish frosting and preparing the night before because that's a lot of cakes for one event. The featured speaker is an author named Thom Mortenson who used to live in this town before a scandal prompted him to move away and start a new life for himself in California. Sadie didn't know him very well and while her best friend Gayle is recently divorced, single and looking, like Thom, Sadie has her own romantic prospects with Pete Cunningham, the detective she met in the very first book. So far Sadie and Pete have been dating casually but haven't even had their first kiss yet. Pete is late getting to the event but when he arrives he seems genuinely happy to see her. Up on the stage, a man named Mr. Ogreski, Thom's PA manager, is fiddling with the microphone on the podium. Sadie's eyes are closed, savoring the incredible taste of the chocolate cake, HER chocolate cake. Suddenly, a gunshot cleverly rigged inside said podium shatters the quiet murmur of conversation and clinking silverware in the hotel ballroom. Mr. Ogreski is dead and Thom has fled the scene. The intended victim of the sawed-off shotgun inside the podium was obviously Thom the featured speaker...right? Who is behind this? What was the motive? Here's the list of suspects: One of Sadie's table occupants was a young lady named Michele (Wait, that's MY name! But with two lls. I didn't do it, Sadie, I promise!) who just happened to be driving the get-away car for the suspicious-looking young man with a camera who started snapping pictures without anyone's permission before bolting from the scene, much to Sadie's dismay. Could this mysterious photographer, whose name we learn later is Josh, be the murderer? Sadie tracks him down and gets Shawn to help her apprehend and keep him from getting away until Pete and his investigation team can question him. Meanwhile, a reporter for the Denver Post, Jane Seely, just happened to be in town and wants to stick to Sadie like glue so she can be the one to write the Pulitzer prize winning story. Once again, the bulk of this story takes place all in one evening and late into the night. After Sadie manages to ditch Jane, she finally has a chance to change out of her semi-formal evening dress and heels into something more comfortable before she follows a lead to the photographer's mother's home. It is now 10:30pm and Sadie has discovered Josh went to the same high school as Thom's late son who committed a murder-suicide years ago. Josh's mom turns out to be a psycho woman who attacks poor Sadie with a frying pan, insisting her darling boy is innocent and would never be involved in a murder plot, knocking her out. When Sadie comes to, the woman has left, driving away in her car out of the garage but just then, Thom shows up at the door of the home and lets himself in. Thom appears to still be in shock over what happened just a few hours ago. In a bit of "willing suspension of disbelief" when a reader or viewer of media sets aside logic and reality to focus on a work of fiction, Sadie whips up "Killer Nachos" for a bewildered Thom in a kitchen that isn't hers and just happens to have all the ingredients she needs. (You can substitute a microwave for faster prep and Sadie apparently didn't bother with any cooked meat just kept it all vegetarian) Mrs. Hender returns, Sadie bolts out the front door, but "psycho woman" then proceeds to chase her down the icy, snow covered street (because it is still late spring in Colorado) screaming that Sadie is NOT going to send her boy to jail! Desperate, Sadie slams herself into the front door of a neighboring home and falls into the shrubbery. A rather good looking man in his 40s with long hair pulled into a ponytail and wearing a black shirt steps outside. He dismisses the woman, who stomps off in a huff, then when the coast is clear, turns to address Sadie lying on the ground below the concrete front porch. His name is Eric and he'll be a main character in "Key Lime Pie," but he also turns out to be God-send in assisting Sadie in tonight's mystery murder case. Sadie can't help but feel some spark of attraction for him and he seems to feel the same. Pete who? Once again, the many twists and turns made this a fun story to read and it definitely made me hungry! Read it and see if you can guess whodunnit because even I wasn't expecting the character who turned out to be the actual murderer and attacked Sadie in Act III, while monologuing the entire time about how Sadie knows too much for her own good and nearly ruined his/her evil plan with her meddling, to be who I thought. Of course Sadie ends up okay, fighting off her attacker and living to see another day because aside from the one and only victim, to quote a Disney movie that comes to mind...Don't worry. Nobody else dies in these stories. They just get really big boo boos!

Who knew so much could happen to Sadie in 24 hours. This was a lot of fun to read. You've got to love how Sadie just happens to stumble upon interesting information that leads to solving murders. She is a delightful and quirky heroine with recipes that are a sweet and delicious bonus.

This is a good read. This reader enjoyed the characters, their antics, and the introduction of some things new. It was funny. It was well written. I'm looking to starting the next book in this series.

Shipped super quickly and it's in very good condition too! The story itself is amazing - I read the first book (lemon tart) and then came on amazon and realized there were two more! Then, the real kicker, I just found out theres 13 in the whole series. You can read them in any order, but each book uses a little bit of detail from the previous ones as well, so I'm reading them in order. And yes! There are recipies in here too, I have not made one yet but they're at the end of the chapter with which you see the dessert. I would say 4-5 recipies throughout each book.

I enjoyed reading this book. The plot took a few different turns that surprised me. Sadie is a fun character with a big personality. The recipes are a nice bonus.jpeg

I am writing this review as I hear my stomach screaming for Evil Chicken and Devil's Food Cake. Both recipes will be tried out soon. Oh my does our Sadie and son, Shawn Hoffmiller get into unbelievable danger, confusion, and murder just by Sadie attending a fund raiser for the Library. Garrison, Colorado is a quiet town with not much going on except around our Sadie. This time she was sitting next to her 'sometime, maybe, hopefully, boyfriend, Detective Pete Peterson. A Murder occurs on stage by the agent for the hometown author. Sadie can't even get out of the ballroom of the hotel, with her best friend and eyewitness, Gayle before being involved with a fake crime photographer, a cunning and self-serving news reporter from Denver, and angry policemen. I laughed, I sat in suspense and I heartily endorse this excellent book. Treat yourselves.