Well, the cover made me crave pancakes! Although my capacity is two, one in the morning and one in the afternoon with plenty of sugar-free maple syrup and close to butter substitute.

The main character, Dani Greene who is starting a green maple sugar business does not seem very interested in who killed the victim at the beginning. Of course, everyone hated the victim, Alanza Speedwell, a contestant at a pancake-eating contest. She flops face-first into a stack of pancakes. Well, the contaminated syrup was the murder weapon.

A wonderful romantic interest, Graham (like the cracker) Paterson shows up when panicked Dani sees a panther outside the window. He teases her about seeing a panther and teases her a lot throughout the book but with affectionate teases.

A goofy thing happened. some exotic animals got out and this New Hampshire, so people are worried about their survival-both animal and human survival. There is a wonderful scene with the main character and a sloth that had me laughing and picturing it. As the book when on the story develop and Dani tries to figure out who the murderer is. She cannot resume her green business until the contaminated syrup mystery is solved.

But all through the book, there are wonderful scenes with Dani or another local person and an escapee of the exotic animal collection. Last night, I was convulsed with laughter that my pet bird was worried about me. There is an excellent mystery too but I want to continue this series mainly for the gut-busting laughter. ( )

Pancakes and maple syrup, the author had me right there, I adore pancakes just about any kind of pancake and an all you can eat pancake eating contest sounds like heaven.
The story was well fleshed out and has a large detailed cast of characters. The main character Dani was great, she was determined to help while at the same time vulnerable with her feelings, she's funny and a real force to reckon with. I loved the church scene where the camel reduced her to a wet t-shirt contest participant. Embarrassingly funny. The exotic animals was a clever device that the author used to give the Fish and Game officer, Graham an excuse to keep appearing in the story.
I'll be reading the 2nd book in this series and I hope it's just as good. ( )

Read the first 45 pages and gave in. Didn't care for the protagonist and the writing was sophomoric.
( )

Drizzled With Death is the first book in the A Sugar Grove Mystery.

I think this will be a fun series. One thing that I would like to see is more information on the making of maple syrup. With these "specialty" mysteries, I enjoy learning something about that area and would like to see what the process is like.

Dani Greene's family has growing maple syrup business, which is one of the few suggestions that the family has listened to from the "baby" she's in her late 20's, of the family. But that could very well change as at the annual Sap Bucket Brigade annual pancake eating contest, Alanza Speedwell ends up dead, face down in her stack of pancakes. The Greene family has been providing the maple syrup and it determined that there was poison added to the syrup. Since the wheels of justice are turning slower than Dani likes, she starts to do some investigation of her own. She soon finds that there is an extensive list of people would like to see her gone for good.

Dani's family are likeable. The grandparents are ones you would love, her sister borders on one you would love to hate, but at the same time provides a little fun. Her best friend, Piper Wynwood, who owns a diner called The Stack, is another fun character with her anything but normal life.

Of course there is a potential love interest for Dani, in the form of Graham Paterson, from the State Fish and Game. The book starts with Dani reporting the sighting of a mountain lion and Graham responds to her call. It's enjoyable to watch the bantering between these two. I hope to read more, before they decide that just maybe they might be attracted to each other.

A very enjoyable read, even though reference to maple syrup was a little much. Maybe the next book will be set during sap collection time and we can learn a little more about that. ( )

Someone in one of my groups who could almost be considered my cozy book twin was disappointed with this read, so I had low expectations for liking it myself. Perhaps that's why I found myself pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did.

Dani is the youngest of three in what seems to be a close-knit family in New Hampshire. She is spearheading the transition from syrup making as a family hobby to a thriving business. From what I can tell, the entire family still lives at home: Grandparents, mother (father passed away), sister, brother and herself. Her sister is married with two kids. I'm tipping it's a pretty damn big house. Dani is very small in stature - under 5 foot - and is very petite. This added to being the youngest results in her family not taking her seriously and treating her somewhat like a child.

While I like Dani, she does act somewhat like a child. Not enough to completely turn me off, but enough so I noticed. She has gumption, but she lacks self-confidence and she defines herself too much by her family's views and not enough by her own. Her sister is a flat out bitch. No, wait, she's a flat out bitch stuck in a previous century. She comes right out and tells Dani that she is a failure at 29 because she's not married with kids yet. If the author wanted us to like her at all, she failed and failed big.

The highlight of the book is a sub-story that, near as I can tell, serves no purpose to the plotting or the story beyond being an excuse to introduce the possible future love interest. It seems a truck full of exotic animals escaped into Sugar Grove. The Fish and Game officer is in town for the duration, rounding up all manner of odd animals, some of which make rather spectacular entrances around town. The scenes are amusing without being slapstick and they added a lightness to the story.

The murder plot was a typical set-up: hated townsperson falls victim of poisoning and Dani's family's syrup is blamed. Dani must find out who added the poison before her fledgling business tanks. While the setup is typical, the rest of the plot isn't. There are quite a few suspects and in the end the murderer wasn't anyone on my radar. The denouement was also well done - not the typical TSTL moment where the heroine confronts the killer and puts herself in mortal danger. There's a bit of TSTL, but it's not typical! I liked it myself.

All in all Drizzled with Death isn't a book I'm going to rave about or gush over. It was a good start and I wouldn't steer anyone clear of it. I'll look for the second book because I enjoyed the first book enough to be interested in what happens next. ( )