January 13, 2020
Pirates have arrived in Eastport, Maine, for the Eastport Pirate Festival in Graves’s entertaining third Death by Chocolate mystery (after 2019’s Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake), and costumed tourists and townspeople are swashbuckling all over town. Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and Ellie White, partners in the Chocolate Moose bakery, have survived the kids’ party they threw for the rampaging young scallywags and buccaneers, but an encounter with the supremely unpleasant TV food personality Henry Hadlyme provokes Jake into threatening the man in public, not a good idea as it turns out. Eastport’s police chief, Bob Arnold, inconveniently finds Jake in the bakery’s cellar with a very dead Henry, pierced by a cutlass that belongs to Jake’s husband. Jake is, of course, the prime suspect, and she and Ellie are soon chasing down leads to clear her name and find the real killer. Plenty of suspects and a mysterious sailing ship make for an intriguing puzzle. Cozy fans are sure to have fun. Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Literary.