The Chocolate Falcon Fraud (A Chocoholic Mystery #15) by JoAnna Carl

What's my favorite food? If you've been here a while you know the answer is easy - chocolate. It doesn't matter the time of day, if there is a way to it to a meal or snack, I'm game. So of course when you add it to my other favorite thing, reading mysteries, there is a good chance you have a scored a win. In the case of The Chocolate Falcon Fraud (A Chocoholic Mystery #15) by JoAnna Carl, it is a total win.

From the back of the book:

From the bestselling author of The Chocolate Clown Corpse, it’s murder, my sweet, for a chocolatier whose love of old crime films plunges her into a real-life murder where the motives aren’t so black and white…
The Warner Pier tourism board is kicking off its Tough Guys and Private Eyes film festival with The Maltese Falcon, and Lee Woodyard and her Aunt Nettie are preparing a delicious chocolate noir tie-in at TenHuis Chocolade. What Lee isn’t prepared for is a face from the past: Jeff Godfrey, her former stepson. The last time Jeff showed up in town, he wound up being accused of murder. Now he says he’s only in Warner Pier to see Bogart on the big screen. Honest.

Jeff may now be a college grad, but that doesn’t mean he’s any less naïve than the kid Lee had to bail out of trouble earlier. There are all those strange phone calls, a girlfriend who’s secretly on Jeff’s tail, and a pack of suspicious-sounding acquaintances right out of Dashiell Hammett. Then Jeff goes missing, the Falcon theme is haunting everyone, and a body falls at Lee’s feet when she opens the front door – just like in the movie.

Now Lee is under deadline to rewrite the ending of a cunning killer’s increasingly convincing murder plot.

My thoughts:

You may recall my first dip in this series was in the last part. Not only have I been able to go back and read a lot of parts, I have also loved them all. The characters have become like dear friends, due to the wonderful dialogue and development, especially Lee, I love Lee.

I really enjoyed reading, and studying, The Maltese Falcon in school, and was so impressed with how it was used to enrich this story. The mystery was unique and there was loads of suspense. The layers and depth were so impressive it is worth mentioning again that this was a perfect blend of this story, enhanced with the classic. Plus chocolate. I'm impressed with how intense it was, yet still light and amusing. This is a series I highly recommend.

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