I have all the chocoholic books and I love them all. However, I think it is safe to declare this one the best in the series so far. The last book was a bit of a disappointment but this has renewed my faith in the author, so much so that it was even worth the hardcover price.
The story centers around the small town of Warner Pier, Michigan and its christmas festival, WinterFest, in hopes to attract tourism and drum up business in a wintery time when business would otherwise be slow. Lee Woodyard, the main character and series amateur sleuth, is the treasurer of the WinterFest committee and through a series of events winds up traveling to a town an hour away to pick up the judge of the Warner Pier art show, who is thoroughly sloshed and quite amorous. She successfully fights him off and dumps him at a nearby motel. The next day he mysteriously winds up dead with she and her husband Joe as the prime suspects. All signs point to someone on the WinterFest committee since they were Mr. Drunk's only contacts in the Michigan area.
There is tasty chocolate trivia interspersed throughout the chapters and of course, delicious descriptions of the candy treats sold in Lee's aunt Nettie's business, TenHuis Chocolade. The story moves along at a nice pace and the book is not too long. I enjoy the small town atmosphere of the book and the whodunit plot is well planned out by Ms. Carl. I think this is her best mystery of this series and although I guessed whodunit before all was revealed, it was only because of her clever clues and not because it was so terribly obvious. Overall, I most definitely recommend this book to any mystery fan and especially fans of the previous chocoholic mysteries. I suggest you read this with some chocolate handy.