Town in a Blueberry Jam

Town in a Blueberry Jam
B.B. Haywood
308 pages
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Source: library
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.


Town in a Blueberry Jam is the first cozy in the Candy Holliday series.  I randomly came across this book while browsing the library and was drawn in by the Candy Holliday logo on the spine and then the cover.  Plus, I love a good cozy so I was eager to read it.

Candy (named so because of her Halloween birthday) lives in the town of Cape Willington, Maine and works on her father's blueberry farm.  On the eve of the Blueberry Festival a popular local citizen is found dead, appearing to have either jumped or pushed off a cliff.  When the winner of the Blueberry Festival pageant is also murdered, Candy finds her self investigating the murders to exonerate her friend who has been wrongly accused.

It was a cute cozy, even if it did have a bit of a slow start - it wasn't until a third of the way though the novel that the second victim is killed and Candy starts her investigation.  I did enjoy reading about the festival goings-on, particularly the pageant itself, which had some humorous moments.  I did see one major plot twist coming a mile away, but I didn't know who the murderer was until the end, though it didn't really surprise me to read it.

The character development was about nil and the plot sometimes seemed to drag on, that's why this book gets three stars from me.  It was a cute cozy, but it didn't blow me away.

PS: I'm tempted to try the recipe in the back for blueberry whipped cream, but my diet started today.