Cookie Dough or Die by Virginia Lowell

Cover Illustration
by Mary Ann Lasher
Cover Design
by George Long

A Berkley Prime Crime Mystery
A Division of The Penguin Group


A Cookie Cutter Shop Mystery
A Brand New Series!!
Release Date: April 5, 2011

ISBN-10: 0425240673
ISBN-13: 978-0425240670

Olivia Greyson is the owner of The Gingerbread House which occupies the first floor of her Victorian home in Chatterley Heights. It is a shop that features cookie cutters and other baking items. Olivia lives upstairs with her tiny dog Spunky. Olivia (Livie) and her friend Maddie run the shop and Maddie bakes and creates the most yummy cookies. Olivia gets to be close friends with  prominent Chatterley Heights citizen and business woman  Clarisse Chamberlain who also has a passion for cookie cutters.  She often helped out at Livie's shop and gave her business advice.

No one it town is more shocked than Livie when she learns of Clarisse's death.  The sheriff calls it an accident, maybe suicide, but Livie can't wrap her head around those ideas.  Clarisse was too meticulous and too strong, neither of these options fit. She knows Clarisse had something on her mind of late but until Livie can figure out what that was she can't be sure, but her gut is telling her this was not an accident.  Some one killed Clarisse Chamberlain and she is going to find out who before the last cookie crumbles.

I really liked this story.  It is a wonderful debut to what I am sure will be a wonderful series.  Cozy mysteries are my favorites and I am continually amazed by the variety of settings used for each series.  A simple cookie cutter shop is an excellent setting and I can see many possibilities for future mysteries.


The foundation has been well laid in this first story.  Letting us get to know just enough about they main characters to want us to keep reading more about them to learn who they are below the surface. The supporting characters in this story were fun, quirky, opinionated, smart, and witty.  I hope they are around in future installments.


This is not only a new series but a new author.  An author I can't find anything about.  Not a web page, a Facebook page or email.  Leads me to wonder if this is a new author or an author we already know using a pseudonym.  If Virginia Lowell is indeed a brand new author, this is an excellent written mystery for a debut.  I hope we can learn more about her in the future and that she continues to write books as good as this one. Through my research I did find out that book two in this series A Cookie Before Dying is slated to be released December 6, 2011.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Berkley Prime Crime, A Division of the Penguin Group. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”