I’m the kind of guy who likes helping people out. Maybe it’s why I’m a handyman. I like being there for people, especially my best friend, Willa, like when she needs help with her cheese shop. Or with solving a murder.

Yeah, Willa likes helping people out too, but usually it involves a dead body. She’s earned her reputation as an amateur sleuth. The two of us and her Curds & Whey crew—our friends, Archie and Mrs. Schultz—call ourselves Team Cheese. We’re kinda like the Scooby Doo gang, but with cheese instead of ghosts.

A lot of us from Yarrow Glen have been involved with this year’s Dairy Days festival, even though it takes place in our neighboring town. Willa’s been running her cheese booth and Mrs. Schultz, a retired high school drama teacher, is helping with the Miss Dairy pageant. Archie’s been doing double duty attracting customers in his cheese wedge costume and attending dance rehearsals for the pageant’s opening number. I was helping build a new stage ramp for Nadine, the pageant director, who broke her leg and wasn’t happy with the ramp she had. I thought once I fixed it, I’d get to spend the rest of the weekend eating mac & cheese cones, drinking milkshakes, and playing cow chip bingo. But when Nadine was found crushed to death under a pile of broken milk jugs, Willa couldn’t help but get involved. Since this murder didn’t take place in Yarrow Glen, our own Detective Heath can’t investigate. Not only does the chief of police suspect Mrs. Schultz, he’s also being sketchy about investigating further! We gotta put Team Cheese on the case.

As the resident sidekick, you could say I’ve come through in the clutch—like earlier today when I saved Detective Heath from some bad dancing on stage while he was trying to investigate with Willa under the radar. And I said yes to another stakeout, even without snacks! Even so, we still have too many suspects: a pageant mom, who thought Nadine wasn’t giving her daughter a fair shake; a local journalist with secrets who’s against pageants; the new festival director, who resented Nadine’s seniority in making festival decisions; and the pageant judge that Nadine just fired, who sells Becky’s Bakeware, and is now afraid her reputation as the number one Becky in Sonoma Valley is ruined. The worst of it is, we can’t even be sure it’s not Nadine’s own cousin, Mary Ann, or the police chief, himself!

I know my partner in crime. Willa’s not gonna let this go until she thinks she’s got it figured out. And I’ll be there with her, even when it’s fondue or die.

Fondue or Die, A Cheese Shop Mystery Book 5
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: October 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

In Korina Moss’s Fondue or Die, the lazy, hazy, dairy days of summer are coming to a close in the Sonoma Valley. . . and so is someone’s life.

The small town of Yarrow Glen’s neighbor, Lockwood, hosts an annual Labor Day weekend bash: Dairy Days. And Willa Bauer and her cheese shop, Curds & Whey, refuse to miss out on the fun. Willa is thrilled to celebrate her favorite thing―she is a cheesemonger after all―and this festival goes all out: butter sculptures, goat races, cheese wheel relays, even a Miss Dairy pageant. Too bad the pageant runner, Nadine, is treating Dairy Days prep like it’s fondue or die and is putting everyone around her on edge. When Willa finds Nadine’s dead body under years’ worth of ceramic milk jugs, the police aren’t sure whether the death was an accident. But fingers are pointing at Willa’s employee, Mrs. Schultz, who steps in to help the pageant after Nadine’s death. Someone wanted Nadine out of the whey, and Willa is going to find out who.

About the author
Korina Moss is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead and the Agatha Award finalist for Best Contemporary Novel, Case of the Bleus. Her books have been featured in USA Today, PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. Her 5th Cheese Shop Mystery, Fondue or Die, was released on October 22nd. To learn more, visit her website at korinamossauthor.com.