Cozy Time: Eggs in Purgatory by Laura Childs

Author: Laura Childs
Publisher/ Format: Berkley Prime Crime Mass Market Paperback, 289 pages 
Year of publication: 2008
Subject:  pick one: murder, friendship, book store, food
Setting: fictional town of Kindred Minnesota
Series: Cackleberry Club
Genre: cozy mystery
Source: borrowed from my sister

Well, my sister Cheli said I'd love it, and she was right!  This is going to be a delightful series.  I love the setting, I love the characters, and the plot - while a bit farfetched at times - is not over the top. Suzanne, Toni, and Petra are three women who suddenly find themselves living alone due to death, divorce, and terminal illness of their spouses.  They pool their many and varied talents to open the Cackleberry Club, a sort of Diner that evolves into a diner/restaurant/teashop with a book store and knit shop attached.  The menus are scrumptious, books and reading are valued and highlighted, people care about each other.

This doesn't mean that Pollyana reigns supreme.  There are villains, and evildoers, and cults, and abusers, and murderers galore, but our three amigas manage to 'assist' Sheriff Doogie (don't you just love the name?) in clearing Suzanne's dead husband's name, in freeing some abused women and children from tyranny, and in solving all the outstanding cases so life can once again settle down, hens can lay double-yolked eggs, and teenagers can find fun jobs.

This one was a good, solid, fun summer's read, but would have been just as great to read in the winter while sitting by the fire sipping hot chocolate.  I've a pile of Laura Child's books sitting here on my Summer Reading Ladder.  Can't wait to get to the next one.