Recently I stumbled on a quirky book with an intriguing title. It was clearly a mystery, and clearly involved chocolate. What could be better? So I decided to taste a sample to see if it was any good. Now I can state with authority that The Chocolate Frog Frame-Up by JoAnna Carl is a sweet, frothy confection. Unfortunately, the mystery lacks some of the richness that a darker tale might hold. But it is also free of the bitter aftertaste that so much fiction leaves behind.

The Story
In the Michigan resort town of Warner Pier, Lee McKinney is the business manager for her Aunt Nettie's chocolate shop, TenHuis Chocolade. Her burgeoning relationship with ex-lawyer turned boat repair shop owner, Joe Woodyard, is just beginning to blossom beyond friendship when the unthinkable happens. The town crank, Hershel Perkins, turns up dead, and all the available clues point to Joe as the culprit.

Nobody who really knows Joe believes it. But with Hershel's recent accusations that Joe intentionally destroyed a historic structure to make a property of his more saleable, the very public shouting match that erupted between the two, and the fact that the paint scrape on Hershel's destroyed boat matches one of Joe's recent projects, things do not look good for the erstwhile attorney.

Things then go from bad to worse when a mysterious black van attempts to run Lee and Joe off the road. Apparently, whoever wants Joe out of the way is willing to stop at nothing to achieve his purpose. They assume that if they can figure out who is after Joe, who is trying to frame him for Hershel's murder, they will have found the killer himself. But can they solve the mystery before someone else is injured – or killed?

My Thoughts
First of all, I should point out that this book is the third in a series. That being said, aside from needing to glean who the various personalities were as I went through the story, it was no problem following the story itself. This book is self-contained and easily stands on its own. The characters have a few quirks that I'm sure are spelled out more completely in earlier volumes – for instance, Lee gets tongue tied and mixes her words up when she's flustered or nervous – but nothing that's not easily sorted out in the course of this story.

This was a fun book, but not by any means a great book. Written by Joanna Carl, a thinly veiled pseudonym for Eve K. Sandstrom, this is not the best mystery I've ever read. The writing was a little simplistic and I had the perpetrator pegged about 1/3 of the way into the book. But though this wasn't exactly deep literature, it also wasn't entirely unfulfilling. I could imagine life for the full-time residents in this little lake shore resort town. And the various descriptions of Aunt Nettie's chocolate confections reminded me of the various incredible chocolate treats that I sampled when visiting France and Belgium.

Another thing making this a unique read is that every few chapters, there is a page of Chocolate Chat with trivia about the history of chocolate and how it has been produced and enjoyed over the years.

In all, I found this to be an entertaining bit of fluff – a light and simple chocolaty treat. This isn't a book for hard-core mystery fans. But anyone looking for a simple summer read should find this to their liking.

3.5 stars – rounded down because the "mystery" was too easy to figure out.


Recommended: Yes