Book Review: The Chocolate Bear Burglary

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Chocolate Bear Burglary     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
JoAnna Carl
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Cozy   Woman Main Character   Amateur Sleuth
Series: Chocoholic Mysteries # 2
Signet, Nov 2002, $5.99, 240

After divorcing her husband and leaving her Texas hometown, Lee McKinney moves to Warner Pier, Michigan where she begins to make a new life for herself. She moves into her Aunt Nettie’s home because the prices for real estate in Michigan are sky high and serves as the business manager for her aunt’s TenHuis Chocolade store. The merchants in the business district are doing a teddy bear winter promotion to attract tourists and TenHuis Chocolade exhibits very valuable antique molds.

In the middle of all the festivity and commotion, Lee’s former stepson Jeff arrives in town, refusing to tell her why he’s there. She puts the troubled youth to work at her aunt’s store and he becomes a hero when he foils a robbery that insures the molds are returned to Gail, the antique dealer who lent them to the store in the first place. The next thing anyone knows is Gail is dead and her stepson is in jail on suspicion of murder. Lee is determined to prove his innocence and sets herself up as a target for a killer without mercy.

Do not read THE CHOCOLATE BEAR BURGLARY on an empty stomach because the luscious, mouth-watering erotic descriptions of exotic chocolate will have you running out to buy gourmet sweets. JoAnna Carl’s amateur sleuth tale is a delectable treat starring a heroine impossible to dislike. This woman gets the job done, whether its selling chocolate or solving the case as she follows up every clue and lead.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner