Blog Tour & Review: Muffin But Murder by Victoria Hamilton

Muffins: the Cupcake’s Underappreciated Sister

by Victoria Hamilton

If muffins and cupcakes were characters in a book, they would be the Misses Elinor and Marianne Dashwood in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.  For those who are not Janeites, a brief explanation is in order.  Elinor Dashwood is the ‘Sense’ of the title, while Marianne Dashwood, her younger sister, is the ‘Sensibility’, a word out of favor now but meant to describe someone who is all feeling and showy emotion.

How does that apply to baked goods? Cupcakes are the darling of the media nowadays.  Just look at the TV shows dedicated to them: Cupcake Wars, DC Cupcakes, The Cupcake Girls.  Cupcakes are showy, flamboyant, pretty and much adored.  Muffins…not so much.  Muffins come in sensible flavors like Bran and Banana, and the showiest they get is to be called Morning Glory Muffins, which is a fancy way of saying they have a lot of ingredients that are good for you.  Muffins are wholesome and homely.

But delicious! And simple to make, and bursting with flavor.

I’ve never made cupcakes.  That many empty calories just isn’t my thing.  But muffins…they have always been my go-to baked good.

In Bran New Death, Book #1 of the Merry Muffin Mysteries, my protagonist, Merry Wynter, describing the difference between muffins and cupcakes, has a conversation with Jack McGill, the real estate agent who is trying to help her sell her castle.

Merry says: “It’s easy. Most people think that if it’s frosted or iced, then it’s a cupcake, but that’s not so.  Some muffins can be frosted too.  Instead, think of the difference between a banana cake and a loaf of banana bread.”

“Okay,” he (Jack) said. “I got that.”

“Well, with the batter of a banana cake, you can make cupcakes, and with the batter for banana bread, you can make banana muffins.  You can do the same with any cake batter or quick bread batter.”

“Ah!” he said, his eyes lighting up. “Cakes are to cupcakes as, uh, what did you call it?”

“Quick bread,” Shilo, (Merry’s friend) who had not gone to feed Magic, (her bunny) filled in.

“Right…cakes are to cupcakes as quick breads are to muffins!”

And Merry is right on…of course, I wrote her that way! She manages to carve out a baking niche for herself in Autumn Vale, New York, supplementing her dwindling finances by supplying muffins to the baked good craving population of the town.

So…if you don’t bake, or are intimidated by all those showy frosted cupcakes, give muffin baking a try!  I guarantee, you won’t be disappointed.  Who needs icing when the muffin itself has so much flavor?

And you can start when you get Muffin But Murder, Book #2 of the Merry Muffin Mysteries, because I give you a killer recipe for muffins Fit For The King…I’ll leave you to discover what that means, but they are delicious!

About the Author:

Victoria Hamilton, nationally bestselling author of the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series, is the pseudonym of Donna Lea Simpson, bestselling author of romance and historical mystery novels.

Victoria started reading mystery novels at the age of 12 and devoured Agatha Christie mysteries, as well as those of Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh.  She still adores mysteries, especially the cozy mysteries of Janet Bolin, Krista Davis, and others.

She loves to cook, and collects teapots and teacups, as well as vintage kitchen utensils and bowls. She also enjoys crafts, especially cross-stitching and crocheting, and spends summer days in the garden, drinking tea or wine.  Besides the Merry Muffin Mystery series, Victoria writes two other mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime, the Vintage Kitchen Mystery Series (Book 4, No Mallets Intended debuts November 4th) and the Teapot Collector Mystery series which debuted with Tempest in a Teapot, in June 2014.

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Muffin maker Merry Wynter hopes to find a buyer for the castle she’s recently inherited. But when she throws a party to draw interest, she finds someone who’s bought the farm instead…

Merry’s career as a New York City stylist has crumbled, but her passion for muffins has helped her rise upstate in Autumn Vale. Everyone in town loves the tasty treats. Still, she would like to return to her glamorous life. Besides, the upkeep of Wynter Castle is expensive, and Merry’s cup isn’t exactly overflowing.

So in order to bring some prospective buyers into the mix, Merry whisks together a spooky soiree and decorates the castle with dashes of fabric and a sprinkling of spider webs. Friends new and old are invited, and everyone has a blast. But as the revelers empty out, Merry notices one partygoer who isn’t leaving—or breathing. Now Merry must hurry to unmask a killer before her perfect plans turn into a recipe for disaster…

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Jennifer’s Review of Muffin But Murder

Review (4.5 Stars): This is the second book in the Merry Muffin series and I loved the second installment much better than the first.  This time around, Merry is throwing an extravagent Halloween party to showcase Wynter Castle for prospective buyers.  Everything is going according to plan except for a few uninvited guests and the fact that she finds a dead body in the coffin that she had on display.  Now, Merry must help find the killer to clear a friend’s name and prevent the Wynter Castle from getting a deadly reputation to prospective buyers.

Muffin But Murder had me hooked from the very beginning and I finished this book in one afternoon.  Merry is definitely growing on me as I follow her adventures while she is settling down in Autumn Vale.  I liked her personality and the determination to make things work out in her life even when things were definitely not going the way that she wanted them to.  The mystery aspect was very entertaining and I was having a difficult time putting all the clues together to figure out who was the killer in this one.  Ms. Hamilton has created another delightful mystery with Muffin But Murder and I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen next with Merry and her friends in Autumn Vale.