I admit it. I have been binging on cozy mysteries for some time now on my kindle. Some of them will get reviewed here and there on Cooking with Ideas. In fact, some of them are in the same series, perhaps, as the one reviewed here. (I probably ought to check my kindle app.)
But: this one, I purchased at a used book store in Winston Salem called McKay's. The first time I went there, it smelled musty and, frankly, I did not want to buy there - or even stay there - because, well, it was musty. I decided, though, to stop by there again - and following the directions on my GPS discovered it had moved to a much more pleasant building. So: I sold some things I had - and used the trade in credit to buy more - and that included Days of Wine and Roquefort. I have a vague feeling I have read it before. Yes, I really have to check my kindle app - oh wait - I just did. And, yes, I own this very book on kindle as well as several others of the Cheese Shop mystery series! Even though I apparently read this before, I still enjoyed it in many ways - pushing the angst of daily work and living away/commuting to the side for a bit at least. And, given I have others of the series on the kindle - I will try to comment on these here as well!
One minor side comment: yes, if the notion of Days of Wine and. . . seems familiar, it is a tip of the hat to Days of Wine and Roses, of course. Want to watch the trailer for that oldie but goodie? Click here. And, of course, for those of us of a certain age, we will not be surprised that the music was by Henry Mancini. Click here for the music.
Again, back to the actual topic of this blog post, Days of Wine and Roquefort and the series:
- Main character Charlotte Bessette appears in all of these Cheese Shop mysteries as do various other characters (such as her relatives and fiancé). In this instance, there is a non-series sommelier and, as the title suggests, an (interesting to me at least) link between wine and cheese. I do find the occasional inclusion of a grandmother and grandfather who are French entertaining when not pushed too far; the grandmother often directs plays so there is the occasional theater joke as well. In this case, there are floating hints that French and California wines are of similar interest.
- Like many other cozies of this sort, there are crosscutting themes including: angry men and the hint of domestic violence; cross generational histories, including in this instance love letters between Charlotte B's parents (SPOILER: not key to plot); entangled pasts and presents of several characters; romance and more. And, of course, its all about a small town, in this case a fictional small town in Ohio which (in my opinion) seems kind of generic.
The author, Avery Aames also writes The Cookbook Nook mysteries as - wait for it because it is her real name - Daryl Wood Gerber. I do like that series (and might write about them at some point). Checking out her website, you will see she writes in several other cozy areas - none of which attract my attention - though I did just see she has a series called The French Bistro Mysteries also written under her real name. Even better than all these various series (which leads me to the suspicion that once a formula writer, always a formula writer), she is also a part of one of my favorite blogs, right at the intersection of themes I love: Mystery Lovers Kitchen. And, I do not have anything against formula writers - I love cozy series as all readers of this blog know.
Finally, I do like it when I learn a bit - and was pleasantly surprised to encounter some cheeses I might look into as well as familiar trends like Humboldt Fog.
Happy reading! I will be returning my paperback copy to McKay's!
