The best part about this season's Catherine Bruns "cozy" mystery A DOOMFUL OF SUGAR is the plot -- Leila Khoury's family farm in Sugar Ridge, Vermont, offers a prosperous business that she returns to, when the unexpected death of her father draws her home. Sorting through threats, risks, and characters interested in taking over the action shows Bruns at her clever best.
Sadly, she makes a number of gaffes in describing sugaring (harvesting maple sap for syrup and sugar), and these can be very distracting for seasoned New England readers. Her first may be the most shocking: describing the existence of "several syrup producers in Vermont." Umm, it's hundreds ... more, if you count the smaller family setups. There is also no such thing as "sap making" (except inside the tree). And so on.
So, New Englanders and upstate New Yorkers, skip this one. The sugaring issues made me dubious about the way Bruns describes the Lebanese characters and cultures, but she has some family connections, it seems, and those may after all be on target. If you're good at passing over these pebbles in the path, then Bruns as usual spins a mystery laced with affection, effort, and a taste of young romance.
PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.
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