Welcome to Torte-a friendly, small-town family bake shop where the treats are so good that, sometimes, it’s criminal…After graduating from culinary school, Juliet Capshaw returns to her quaint hometown of Ashland, Oregon, to heal a broken heart and help her mom at the family bakery. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is bringing in lots of tourists looking for some crumpets to go with their heroic … their heroic couplets. But when one of Torte’s customers turns up dead, there’s much ado about murder…
“Sure to satisfy both dedicated foodies and ardent mystery lovers alike.”
–Jessie Crockett, author of Drizzled with Death
The victim is Nancy Hudson, the festival’s newest board member. A modern-day Lady Macbeth, Nancy has given more than a few actors and artists enough reasons to kill her…but still. The silver lining? Jules’s high school sweetheart, Thomas, is the investigator on the case. His flirtations are as delicious as ever, and Jules can’t help but want to have her cake and eat it too. But will she have her just desserts? Murder might be bad for business, but love is the sweetest treat of all…
“Alexander weaves a tasty tale of deceit, family ties, delicious pastries, and murder.” Edith Maxwell, author of A Tine to Live, A Tine to Die
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A solid 4.5 of 5 stars. I have certain expectations for cozy mysteries. Not super high ones, but they need to tick certain boxes for me. The motivation of the murderer is one of them where I’ve seen cozy mysteries fall down, but not Meet Your Baker! I adored this book. It’s delightful and everything I want in a cozy mystery. Food, characters, recipes, small town setting. This book is so immersive. And the MC’s secret was not at all what I expected! Definitely want to get more of these!
A delightful start to a new-to-me series. You have recipes, drama and a murder mystery. I was completely thrown on the killer. Looking back on it, I am like “duh, I should have seen that clue.”
Juliet “Jules” Capshaw has returned home for a “few weeks” to heal after learning disturbing news about her husband. What she thinks will be a quiet few weeks soon turns into questions regarding her mom’s skittishness when discussing Torte, the family business. Before she can fully question her mom, Jules stumbles upon a dead body inside of Torte. What follows is an intriguing recipe filled with smoke and mirrors.
I am hooked on this series. There are ten published so far with an eleventh scheduled for this year. No promises but I think I might move this series up the read very soon list. I am getting ready to complete a few series and need a new one.
This was such a great start to this Bakeshop Mystery series! It was filled with yummy baked goods, mystery, and a murder. The author had great character development and made it feel like you knew them right from the start. With most cozy mysteries you tend to know who the murderer is, but Ellie Alexander did a FANTASTIC job with hiding who it was. I definitely was not expecting the ending!
Great cozy mystery with lots of fun characters.
I love this series so much!!
Jules has come home from a life on sea. Her husband kept a secret from her and now she is trying to take some time to figure things out. I love that she jumps right in to help her mom at Torte. Ashland sounds like such a beautiful place and fun community. This time I really noticed Jules’ mom. She is so calm and the one that the town leans on. I want to be like that one day.
Jules gets tossed in to the murder by finding the body. What a crew of people are surrounding Torte. Lance, Sterling, Andy, Stephanie, and I cannot forget Richard Lord! Oh to spend one day with them!!
I did not guess the killer, which is funny because I have read this before. I just get wrapped up in the story and the town.
If this is not on your to-read list, it should be!!
Me and my foodie cozy mysteries! I especially enjoyed author’s description of the preparation of so many dishes interspersed throughout the series and not just recipes at the end of each book.
This cozy mystery takes place in Ashland, Oregon. Juliet “Jules” Capshaw has come home (temporarily) due to some personal heartbreak while working on a cruise ship. Upon coming home, she helps her mom run their family bakeshop, Torte. She hasn’t been home long when she finds a body in their bakeshop! Being that this is the first in the Bakeshop Mystery series, Ellie Alexander takes her time to describe the world of Ashland and the people who are a part of this Shakespearean-loving town. I enjoyed that while the mystery is of course front and center of this story, there is a secondary story involving Jules’ relationships. She waits to tell her mom the details of why she has come home, all while the hometown sweetheart ex-boyfriend is working on the murder investigation. I was intrigued, waiting to read more and take guesses about what was happening in her personal life as well as figuring out “who dunnit.” I enjoyed reading this with some booksta friends and discussing our guesses about the murderer. This was a great book to read and led me to read more of Ellie Alexander’s books.
Bonus: There are recipes at the back of the book, including a delicious sounding summer pasta salad and a Sweet Heat Espresso.
“The glass cases were stuffed with morning buns, cinnamon scones, rhubarb muffins, cherry tarts, savory quiches, almond crescent cookies, and my raspberry Danish.”
u2063
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My first Ellie Alexanders were her Sloan Krause series, and I LOVED those, so I thought I’d try her original bakeshop series. I really enjoyed the tale of Jules returning to her hometown in Oregon after discovering a secret about her husband, helping to run her mother’s bakery, and solving a murder! One of the things Alexander does best is world-building–perhaps because she picks real places. But the locations selected are perfect to add quirk and depth to the stories, and, in the bakeshop series, the funky Shakespearean theatre town is no exception. Alexander creates likable heroines, wonderful food descriptions, depth, and keeps-you-guessing mysteries. I truly didn’t see this one coming! I like the Sloan Krause series slightly better, maybe because I like the town more, or the beer twist, but I can’t wait to continue on with the rest of this series! It’s great for cozy mystery fans and would be a great introduction for those new to the genre.
4 stars – 7/10
I loved it
Be careful: reading this series will make you wish you could get in your car, head to downtown Ashland and savor coffee and cake at Torte!
Very enjoyable cozy mystery. Juliet Capshaw, or Jules, returns to her hometown of Ashland, Oregon in hopes of healing her broken heart while helping her mom with the family bake shop, Torte. Ashland is host to the Shakespeare Festival bringing in lots of tourist to watch the Shakespearean plays. When the newest board member is found dead in Torte, Jules finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation with her high school sweet heart Thomas investigating. Bring your sweet tooth, and maybe a shot of espresso, and prepare to enjoy this whodunit and discover if Jules will truly find her way to home and healing, as well as perhaps catching a murderer along the way in Meet Your Baker.
The mystery was wonderful the food made me hungry! Looking forward to reading more stories with Juliet Capshaw and Torte.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Juliet Capshaw has been working on a cruise ship for years, but when she finds her Chef husband kept a huge secret from her she flees home to Ashland, Oregon, and her family’s bakery, Torte. Working beside her mother they find their rhythm and Jules knows she made the right decision even though she is not sure how long she will stay.
She arrives for her second day at Torte to find one of their customers dead. A woman that was very involved with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival who has accumulated her fair share of enemies. When one of the bakery’s employees is pegged for the crime, She decides to “Go wisely and slowly,” because “Those who rush stumble and fall” and do her best find the real killer.
Typical of the first book in a series that author has jam-packed these pages. Jules is a likable character with a lot going on. Her mother is a wonderful woman and excellent baker but she is hiding something. Jules is not sure what to make of her mother’s young employees but one can sure make a great cup of coffee or any derivative of the caffeine drink. The other seems to have her own issues. All these characters develop well within these pages, but I feel we have much to learn about our protagonist, Juliet Montague Capshaw.
Torte seems to be a popular gathering place especially because of its connection with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival which made it the perfect place for a murder. It was easy to come up with a list of suspects and the secondary characters really came alive. Secrets, falsehoods, and just their general demeanor made it hard to eliminate anyone outright. I followed right along and didn’t put all the clues together until shortly before the villain reveal.
I did enjoy reading about the day to day life of running a bakery and the delectable descriptions of the treats had my stomach growling. There is more than one recipe at the end of the story I can’t wait to try. I have a weakness for anything wrapped in puff pastry
I have some catching up to do on this series, but with a debut like this, I am looking forward to the next book, A Batter of Life and Death and more!
good characters kept me wanting more
This is a good read that introduces several great steady characters
i enjoy light murder mysteries, with cooking storylines. Was easy,relaxing, and look forward to more.
Great start for a new series. Don’t care her ex (?) husband. But love the cop in the book though. She’s a smart baker and cook up a storm and is saving her parents thriving bakery. But who the murderer was took me by surprise at the end. Didn’t see that one coming.
I highly recommend this series. The only negative I have is that the rest of the series are not reduced in price for purchasing yet. But when they are reduced, they will be purchased. Great series.
I really enjoyed this book. Immediately bought more in the series!
After years at sea, Jules Capshaw has returned to Ashford, Oregon. While she figures out what to do with her life, she is helping her mother with Torte, the family bakeshop. But she’s hardly back in town before she meets Nancy Hudson. Nancy is a new member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival board, and she is obnoxious, picking fights with everyone she meets. When Jules finds Nancy one more in Torte’s kitchen, there are quite a few suspects. But with the police focuses on Jules’s friends, she starts to investigate herself in order to find out the truth. Can she do it?
I’ve long heard of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and I’d love to go sometime. Until that happens, this is a great alternative. The characters are wonderful and already fully formed, although I do feel like part of Jules’s backstory isn’t strong enough for her actions. But that’s probably just me. The plot is good, although it was a little weak at the end. Still, everything is wrapped up in a logical way.