On Thin Icing: A Bakeshop Mystery by Ellie Alexander

                 I cannot believe how many times I wanted to throw this book.  Not that I would, but I certainly was tempted.  That’s because Jules’s estranged husband Carlos returns to the scene.  In my opinion, that man needs to go.      

                Pastry chef Jules Capshaw has been invited to cater an entire weekend retreat for the Shakespeare Festival board.  Excited to have business in the quiet time of winter, Jules is eager to have this opportunity to cater the weekend.  She brings along one of her bakery employees, Sterling, to help, never expecting the weekend to turn into one of murder.

                Not long after Jules and Sterling reach the retreat center, they meet the not-so-friendly bartender, Tony.  A bully and a sleaze, it really should not come as much surprise that Tony is the person to turn up dead.  It does surprise Jules, however, as she is the one who finds him in the ice chest while looking for some missing sausage.  Not sure what to do, Jules calls her ex-boyfriend and current police deputy, Thomas, for help.  With a snow storm raging and the occasional cutting out of phones and electricity, there’s only so much anyone can do about the dead body until the police arrive.  Once they do, Jules finds herself in a mess as Thomas suspects Carlos of the murder.  Already busy with the cooking, Thomas’s suspicion of Carlos as the murderer adds another thing to Jules’s plate.  In addition to clearing Carlos’s name and dealing with the snow storm, Jules has to cook, solve a murder, and figure out her feeling for Carlos all in one weekend.  The last one alone is enough to make Jules go crazy, because after being away from Carlos for six months, she has to figure out whether being with Carlos is what she really wants in the end.

                As I said, I wanted to throw this book many times and it’s pretty much all because of Carlos.  He showed up, out of the blue, simply because he wanted to.  I’m not saying he didn’t try to have any contact, because he did.  He sent letters to Jules that she did not read.  While Carlos may have mentioned he was coming to town in one of those, when he did not hear a response he should have called to let Jules know of his impending arrival.  Instead, he decided to surprise her.  At a work function, of all places too.  Part of that blame lies on Jules’s mother, though.  She told Carlos where Jules was without Jules knowing anything about it.  In my opinion she should have talked to Jules first before telling Carlos where Jules was.  The fact that Jules was off working, made the reveal of her location even more inappropriate.

Sadly, the surprise arrival is not the only problem I had with Carlos.  Pretty much the second Carlos shows up he starts to take command of things that really should be Jules’s domain.  He even takes on the task of training Sterling.  Of course, Carlos does these things acting like he’s there merely to “help” Jules, but in the end, Carlos is the one making a lot of the decisions.  Decisions that Jules should be making.  What’s even more infuriating is Jules lets him!  Instead of taking command, Jules stands back and lets Carlos get nearly all the of the attention and glory for the different meals when it is Jules and her hard work at her bakery, Torte, that should really be getting the credit.  It is her and her business that was asked to cater, not Carlos’s, but Jules lets Carlos be the one to shine.    

                To make matters worse, Thomas sees what is going on and tries to tell Jules, but she refuses to listen.  She is too upset over the fact that Thomas views Carlos as a suspect to see what he is truly saying.  It does not matter to her that Carlos had a fight with Tony and his whereabouts for the time of the murder are unknown, which, by the way, would be enough proof to cause anyone else to be a suspect.  In Jules’s mind the simple fact that she says Carlos is innocent should be enough for Thomas to remove Carlos from the suspect list.  Of course, Jules does not give this generosity to anyone she may think is the culprit, but that is beside the point.  Caught up in her own feelings, Jules believes the only reason Thomas suspects Carlos is because of jealousy.  While that may play a small part in things, I believe Thomas is the only one, other than the head detective, who is truly seeing things clearly.  Everyone else is too swept up in Carlos’s shine and charm to have an unbiased look at the facts in front of them.  Even Sterling gets swept away, which is truly disappointing.  He usually has much better judgement than that.

                Since there is a small excerpt for the fourth book in the series at the end of this one, I know that Carlos is in the next book.  I am really hoping that is the last.  Jules is so easily letting Carlos take the attention away from her own hard work.  As much as I like these books and the mysteries in them, I don’t know how much of that I will be able to take.  If Carlos doesn’t leave the books soon, I may have to myself, and that is something I would hate to do.