Book Club Discussion Questions

 
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By Cook or by Crook: Five Ingredient Mystery #1

  1. Bayport and the people Val knew there as a teen have changed. Have you returned to your town or neighborhood and found it changed? 
  2. The search for a place to call home and the protection of home and family are recurring themes in the book. Discuss those themes with respect to Val, her grandfather, her cousin, and Luke. 
  3. What conflicts arise between Val and her grandfather? Would you find it difficult to live with a grandparent or grandchild?
  4. How does Val’s motive for solving the crime change in the course of the book? Can you imagine yourself trying to solve a murder and under what circumstances?
  5. Does Val have good detective skills and/or traits that hamper her search for the truth?
  6. Were the motives of the characters who committed adultery, vandalism, arson, and murder clear? 
  7. What do the food preferences and eating habits of characters like Bethany, Monique, Irene, and Luke's mother reveal about them? Do you know people whose cooking and eating give you clues to their obsessions, values, or fears?
  8. Do you like or dislike romantic subplots in mysteries? Do you feel Val’s budding love interest enhanced or detracted from the story?
  9. Did you figure out the culprit before the end or did you suspect someone else?
  10. Did you notice any clues to whodunit? How does the title relate to the plot?  

Scam Chowder: Five Ingredient Mystery #2

  1. ​The title and first chapter make the book’s theme clear: fraud against retirees. Do you know of anyone targeted by scammers?
  2. Val is a straight-arrow and Granddad is a rule-breaker, putting them at odds. Do their strengths and weaknesses rub off on each other? How well do they work together? 
  3. What do the eating and drinking habits of Lillian, Thomasina, and Omar reveal about them? Did you pick up the food clues pointing to the murderer?
  4. Subplots in mysteries can reflect on themes and characters in the main plot. What is the role of the subplots about the café and Gunnar’s former fiancé?
  5. Discuss the relationship between Val and the older women she must deal with: Lillian, Thomasina, and Irene.
  6. What do Val’s relationships with women closer to her age tell you about her: Bethany, Junie May, and Petra?
  7. Which plot twists surprised you and which did you foresee before they occurred? The second murder? Granddad’s ploy to gather evidence? The foiling of Petra’s scheme?
  8. What information do Val and Granddad pick up when they snoop at senior communities?
  9. Did you figure out the culprit before the end or did you suspect someone else? 
  10. Can you imagine Val in a serious relationship with Gunnar or Roy?

Final Fondue: Five-Ingredient Mystery #3

  1. Bayport is celebrating its past. How does the past impinge on the present for Val, Granddad, and the guests in their house?
  2. Fondue is a throwback to the past. Have you ever eaten cheese or chocolate fondue, and did you like it?
  3. Val gains insights into the houseguests by watching them when they arrive and as they eat fondue. What traits do Fawn, Noah, Sarina, and Jennifer display in the first scene?
  4. Romantic love is a theme in the book. Granddad's houseguests exhibit the dark sides of romance and love. Discuss.
  5. What do Val’s reactions to Tony, Gunnar, and Roy tell you about her love life?
  6. Is Gunnar the right man for Val or are there warning signs for their future relationship?
  7. Discuss the relationship between Val and her mother.
  8. Did you figure out the culprit before the end or did you suspect someone else? 
  9. Mystery writers lay false clues (red herrings) and real clues. Which ones did you catch?
  10. Cozy mysteries combine comedy and menace. How are the celebrity chef, the haunted corn maze, and the Hitchcock allusions both laughable and sinister? 

The Tell-Tale Tarte: Five-Ingredient Mystery #4

  1. ​The book's title is a pun on Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Tell-Tale Heart." Themes that Poe explored in his writing emerge in The Tell-Tale Tarte: the double or look-alike character, guilt, and vengeance. How do those themes come out in Tarte?
  2. How is the book's title reflected in the plot? Have you ever eaten a tarte Tatin and would you ever make one?
  3. What are Val’s and Granddad’s motives for becoming involved in the murder investigation?
  4. How does Val’s reading of Poe’s stories influence her thinking about the murder and the suspects?
  5. ​Which work by Poe do you remember best? After reading Tarte, are you likely to read or reread something Poe wrote?
  6. Poe describes his House of Usher as being alive and Roderick Usher as a man with exceptionally acute senses. In what way is Rick Usher’s house in Tarte alive? Discuss: Each resident of the house has a single acute sense or prominent feature related to one sense—the author, his wife, his publicist, his protégé, and Cicero the dog.
  7. What key clues do Val and Granddad discover at Rick Usher’s house?
  8. Did you figure out who the culprit was before the scene at Poe’s grave? Which character aroused your greatest suspicions?
  9. Did you find the killer sympathetic with understandable motives?
  10. Tarte focuses on the worlds of publishing and of Poe fandom. What insights into those worlds did the book give you?

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