A Half Baked Murder Book Review: Cozy Mystery by Emily George
I’m very excited to be sharing today’s blog post with you. I’m going to be sharing my A Half Baked Murder book review. This cozy mystery was just what I needed for my first book of 2025. It’s features great characters, lots of baked goods, and a fun bakery twist: it’s actually a cannabis cafe!
I’ve personally never been to one (Pennsylvania just isn’t as cool as California, I guess) so it was fun to read about Chloe and Dawn’s new business in this book. If you’re looking for a fun, millennial cozy mystery then this book is for you. Keep read for my full A Half Baked Murder book review.
And if you enjoyed today’s blog post you can find more cozy mystery discussions here.
What is A Half-Baked Murder by Emily George About?
First in a new cannabis bakery–themed cozy mystery series featuring twenty-eight-year-old, classically trained pastry chef Chloe Barnes—sure to appeal to millennial readers as well as lovers of classic cozy mysteries!
Formally trained pastry chef Chloe Barnes is opening a cannabis bakery. That’s not at all what the twenty-eight-year-old envisioned while living the dream in Paris with a hot fiancé and a Michelin star restaurant gig around the corner. But the rising “it girl” of choux puffs rethinks everything after a scathing food review and humiliating breakup make her long for home in sunny California. When her beloved grandmother falls ill, Chloe returns to quaint Azalea Bay to start over in the most satisfying way possible—concocting delicious edibles with her quirky Aunt Dawn.
Combining French luxury and THC, Baked by Chloe will take pot brownies to another level. That is, until a creepy past acquaintance rehashes old drama and shockingly turns up dead—landing Aunt Dawn as the number one murder suspect. Now, alongside her closest confidants, a stunned Chloe must alternate between budding entrepreneur and amateur sleuth to clear her aunt’s name, open the best bakery in town, and weed out the real culprit from a list of unsettling suspects! (from Amazon.com)
My Initial Thoughts
I really enjoyed this book because of the modern take on the classic bakery set up. There are so many amazing cozy mysteries that take place in cafes and bakeries. I liked that Chloe and Dawn’s business had a unique twist. It makes for a really interesting and unique set up for the story. I think cozy fans will like this contemporary take.
A big part of the story is that Chloe is back in town after her fiance cheated on her. She moved home to be with her grandmother (who is currently going through breast cancer treatment) and her Aunt Dawn. Grandma Rose has terrible side effects after treatments and having some of Chloe’s “special” brownies helps to alleviate her symptoms.
I really liked how Chloe’s pot brownies were able to help her grandmother, which then inspired her to share her baking with the town of Azalea Bay.
The Murder of an Old Classmate
Chloe has an unfortunate run in with Brendan Chalmers (the victim) about a day or so before he is found murdered. The whole situation gave me the ick, so I didn’t exactly feel bad when he turned up dead. But when Chloe’s Aunt Dawn is the prime suspect, Chloe decides to start doing a little investigating on her own.
I liked the way Emily George wrote about Chloe’s investigation. As Chloe started asking around in her small town, it turned out that Brendan Chalmers had a lot of people who didn’t like him. Well, that’s an understatement. Nobody really liked him. Which meant that she had a lot of work to do when it came to questioning the people that knew him.
Azalea Bay is a Cozy Small Town
I really liked the setting of this story. Azalea Bay sounds really cute. Chloe went around to a lot of small businesses during her investigation and we got to meet some of the townspeople. The scenes with Starr in the cafe were really funny. Every small town needs a gossip, don’t they? I hope there are more funny scenes with her in future books.
Shout Out to Grandma Rose
Grandmothers are the best, and so I love a book where there’s a much loved grandmother figure. Chloe points out how strong and brave Grandma Rose is, and it’s so true. I know it’s just a book, but it made me sad that she was going through so much with her cancer treatments. I hope she gets better in future books because she’s so lovely and has so much wisdom to give Chloe.
And a Big Shout Out to Dogs!
In a lot of cozy mysteries, the main character has a cat. And I get it. Cats are a very low maintenance pet that a lot of single women enjoy. But A Half-Baked Murder has some great dog characters and I want to give them a shout out! Haha.
First of all, Dawn and her dog perform in freestyle dance competitions. One day Chloe walks up to Dawn’s backyard and watches them practice for a while. I found that so funny. I wound up searching for “dog dance competitions” on Youtube and found a lot of great videos. It’s amazing how well trained some dogs can be!
I also want to give a shout out to Chloe and Grandma Rose’s cute dog that they adopt from the rescue. He was so cute and I can’t wait to read more about him in future books.
There. I’m done. I’m a dog lady at heart and so furry friends in books just make me really happy, ok?
In Conclusion
I really enjoyed A Half-Baked Murder by Emily George and can’t wait to check out the next book in the series. Emily George has an authentic fresh voice and she crafted a unique cozy mystery in so many creative ways. Chloe was a very enjoyable character to read about and I can’t wait to see where her business goes in the future books in the series.
Thanks for reading my A Half Baked Murder book review and I’ll see you in my next post!
