Cheesemongers across the country have descended on Yarrow Glen for the annual Northwest Cheese Invitational. Willa Bauer, owner of the local cheese shop, is excited to attend the event as well as see some of her old colleagues who are there to honor her former boss, Max Dumas, who had recently died. Max's will is to be read after the show where, hopefully, he will reveal the location and secret recipe of his award-winning bleu cheese. But instead of telling everyone the secret, Max's will reveals a cryptic riddle. And when one of Willa's old colleagues dies mysteriously, Willa and Team Cheese get on the case to figure out what has happened.
Case of the Bleus is the fourth book in the Cheese Shop Mystery series. This is a fun cozy mystery series with great characters and lots of cheese. Seriously, the book is filled with discussions about the different cheeses that Willa is either selling in her shop or eating. Willa whips up so many yummy cheese-related recipes that are all found in the back of the book. I love a book that includes recipes at the end and the recipe in this book for a garlic cheese spread sounds so delicious!
This book has two mysteries for Team Cheese to solve - who killed Willa's friend and the mystery and location of Max's bleu cheese recipe. I loved how Team Cheese - Mrs. Schultz, Artie, and Baz - has evolved from the first book. They are really leaning into their sleuthing abilities and I really liked the dynamics between the group.
I liked this book but I felt like the reveal of the killer was a bit anticlimactic as compared to the other books in the series. I was waiting for some evil villain monologue about how the murder happened and we didn't get that here which was a bit of a letdown. We find out the who and the why but not the how. I still had a lot of questions at the end of the book.
I was also a bit disappointed because I was hoping to see Willa and Detective Heath's relationship progress but unfortunately, Willa can't keep from involving herself in the mystery which, understandably, made Heath upset. I can see where he's coming from but as a romance lover, I was hoping he could forgive her. The two seem to have a great rapport, much more than the other potential love interest in the book. To be fair, I'm not sure that Willa and Detective Heath ever could have a relationship seeing as how he is a detective and she is the person undermining and solving all of his cases, but I am still rooting for these two and I have faith that something will happen in the next book.
While not my favorite in the series, this was still a great cozy mystery.
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