Dark Chocolate Demise (Cupcake Bakery Mystery #7) by Jenn McKinlay

Synopsis

“Scottsdale, Arizona, may not be the liveliest place on earth, but it’s never been as dead as this. The first annual Old Town Zombie Walk is announced, and Mel, Angie, and the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew are donning their best undead attire to sell some horror-themed desserts to the hungry hordes. But fun turns to fright when Mel finds a real dead body in a prop casket outside of the bakery’s truck-and the corpse looks alarmingly like a zombie of their own. Mel worries that someone near and dear was the real target. To keep any of her friends from winding up six feet under, Mel will do whatever it takes to find a killer – no matter how scary things get…”

-Synopsis from StoryGraph

Review

Dark Chocolate Demise is book seven in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series. This was another great installment in the series with lots of developments among the characters. I listened to the audiobook version and Susan Boyce continues to be a great narrator!

Mel and Joe are still not able to see each other because of the case that Joe is working on. Mel’s safety would be at risk if it were to be known they were still together, so they have to pretend that they are not speaking. However, Joe does make a few attempts at seeing Mel after what happens at the Old Town Zombie Walk.

This book takes place in March but I kept thinking it was October because of the zombie theme. At any rate, this event is very much something that would happen in Old Town so it fit right in with things that would happen in Scottsdale.

As the synopsis mentions, there is confusion about the body that is found in the prop casket and whether or not the woman inside was the intended target. As that story unfolds, there are so many twists! I loved this and loved the ending when Mel finally finds out what was going on.

Angie and Tate spring a surprise ending on Mel and Joe at the end, right when they are having an important conversation of their own, leaving us with yet another cliffhanger.

I look forward to reading the next book, Vanilla Beaned, soon.