A Fete Worse Than Death

A Fete Worse Than Death is the eighteenth Hemlock Falls Inn cozy from Claudia Bishop, with the Quilliam sisters Sarah and Meg again managing their upstate New York inn through another seasonal crisis. The case in this entry involves a summer-fete murder, with the body found in the pie-judging tent and the village-politics ensemble that the series has been developing across nearly two decades providing the investigation's social texture.

Bishop's strength in A Fete Worse Than Death is the village-festival material. The booth politics, the judging panels, the specific ways small communities express decades-old grudges at public events are rendered with the kind of affection that the form rewards. Fans of M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series or Diane Mott Davidson's Goldy Bear novels will recognize the comfort-cozy register at its most relaxed.

The mystery resolves quickly. The culinary material remains the series' strongest feature.

Three stars. A reliable late-series cozy. Recommended for cozy readers who enjoy long-running ensemble series. The A Fete Worse Than Death Claudia Bishop entry assumes some familiarity with the Hemlock Falls cast; new readers should start with A Taste for Murder.