REVIEW: Chocolate Revolution Murder

Chocolate Revolution Murder
Author: Susan Gillard

One of Heather Shepherd's old friends from high school returns to Hillside for the annual Fourth of July festivities. Heather hasn't seen Cherry since high school. She didn't even know she was back in town until she took her dog out for a walk and accidentally overheard her arguing with a man. Then Cherry is found strangled to death, and Heather is once again on the case to find clues and help the police solve the case.

This series is light, entertaining reading, and I did enjoy this story. But......the character names have suddenly switched to nonsense names, and while I suppose it is cute, on some levels, it pulls me out of the story. I'm not sure why it bugs me....but it does. Maybe the ridiculous pun names are just one step too far towards light reading for me? Or maybe I am a curmudgeon, or a budding book snob. But in a honest review, I have to be completely honest. I don't like the joke names. This time it's Cherry Jubilee and Dyl Pickle....ugh. If I roll my eyes any more, they might get stuck up there like my mother always warned me they would.

There are some editing issues with this book. The name of a nightclub changes midway through the book. At the start it's Club Liquid....but then it changes to The Liquid Club. Sometimes from page to page, the name changes back and forth from one version to the other. A character is mentioned as if already introduced when she hasn't appeared in the story yet......and then is not mentioned again. Poor editing. The errors appear to be editing mistakes.....professional editing is very important for self published books! This series is enjoyable, but would be much better with cleaner editing to fix continuity errors, grammar and spelling mistakes.

Now that I've mentioned the problems I had with this story, I'm moving on to the positives. I like the characters and the doughnut theme is fun. The books are all short, quick reads...perfect length for an evening of relaxation, or while waiting for an appointment, on a trip, etc. The chocolate revolution doughnut from the story sounds quite yummy!

There are 60 novellas in the Donut Hole series. Chocolate Revolution Murder is book #11. There is also a spin-off series, Oceanside Cozy Mystery series.

In the end, better editing would improve this series substantially. But, the books are still entertaining and fun to read.