Devil's Food Cake

Devil’s Food Cake

By: Josi. S. Kilpack

Would you look at that cover?  If nothing else drew me to read this book it was the cover.  Chocolate is it’s own food group in my mind.  Especially when you have layers and layers of rich chocolate.   Some people can’t handle that rich chocolate flavor.  I’m definitely not one of them. 

Devil’s Food Cake, like the actual treat, has more layers and more twists and turns than the previous two books in the Sadie Hoffmiller series.  New characters pop up who stay with Sadie for several more books; something that Kilpack hasn’t done in her previous two books (minus Sadie’s children and boyfriend).

Summary

Thom Mortensen has returned to Garrison to speak at a fundraising event.  Things don’t turn out smoothly for Thom when his manager, Mr. Ogreski is murdered in front of at least 100 people, including Sadie. At the scene of the crime Sadie immediately starts to investigate.  She incorrectly guesses that since she has twice successfully solved murder, her boyfriend, Detective Pete Cunningham, would love the help of her armature detective work.  However, after she answers the police’s questions Pete tells her to go home.  He doesn’t want her involved.  Sadie tries to do as she is told, except as she is leaving she finds more questions to be answer and more clues to uncover, which eventually lead her to finding new friends who’ll help with solving the case, because the Garrison police are once again looking in all the wrong places and unwilling to listen to her.

New Characters

Devil’s Food Cake introduces two key characters who play bigger parts in the following books.  Eric, a fellow citizen of Garrison, quickly becomes Sadie’s friend and co-investigator in the case.   Jane, a reporter for the Denver Post, is looking to dig something delicious up when it comes to Thom’s new book.

These two characters are responsible for much of the change that takes place in Sadie’s character over the next few books.

A Development of Sadie’s Character

We also meet Shawn, Sadie’s son, who is a huge help to Sadie in solving this mystery.  We have now seen Sadie interact with her two children, which further develops her character.  By watching, or reading in this case, someone interact with their grown children you learn more about them.  How important is family to them?  Do their children trust them with the things going on in their adult life?  Does Sadie treat her children like she did when they were at home—looking over their shoulders to make sure they dotted all their “I’s” and crossed all their “T’s”?  Or does she give them the space they need? 

Introducing more characters for Sadie to interact with gives Sadie more depth, which deepens as the series continues. 

Personal Review

For this reason I loved this book.  Devil’s Food Cake is the first book in which characters in the book begin to shape Sadie, and when we see Sadie begin to change from a retired widow who is happy to live in a small community, volunteering at fundraisers and baking in her kitchen, to a woman who is realizing there is more to life than staying in one spot and doing the same things over and over again.  Sadie is coming to understand there is more to life than making chocolate cake.