No, I have not been to the Cape, which of course I love. This time I got there via a murder mystery. While its copy editing is flawed -- verboten for verbatim, sight for site, interceded for intercept -- it was a fun read. And as the end of the book itself says (well, of the kindle version) -- this is published by a little organization and they apologize for any errors, we have to forgive these small errors. As I said, the read was fun. And really, verboten for verbatim made me smile. Of course, I have reviewed Cape restaurants (e.g., here) and . . . so Cape mysteries with food seemed so perfect. Yep, bought it and devoured it.
The title? A Deadly Chocolate Pi and, yes, we're stuck in pun land for titles though this time at least the issue of pi and pie appear in the novel. The author is Cynthia Gallant-Simpson and there are even a few pictures of Provincetown. Turns out if you google chocolate pi, there are lots of folks that like this pun and use it -- for the obvious reasons. In any case, I liked the way this mystery wove together food, Cape Cod history, characters and there are fun tidbits about the Cape during the off season. The main character is Liz Ogilvie-Smyth and here is a bit of a sub-plot about her need to reveal to her beau (yep, the usual) the fact that she is filthy rich and has been hiding that. Otherwise, the main tale involves death -- perhaps by pi/pie -- and lots of odd characters.
If grammar and word choice are your friends, perhaps not for you. But -- if you want to know weird little bits of chocolate lore or want to smile that it is not only college students who make mistakes -- well, a quick read of a cozy from the Cape. And, I for one, smiled that the notion of pi is hi-falutin' mathematics. Really?


