The coveted Golden Spoon of Bake Week.
Hosted by America's grandmother, Betsy Martin, Bake Week has been on the air for the past decade, giving six contestants the opportunity to bake their way to the top but this year brings some unexpected changes.
Faced with the addition of a co-host she never wanted, Betsy welcomes the contestants into her home, a sprawling mansion where Besty has been forced to share her private quarters with Archie Morris, the boorish host of Cutting Board, a Gordon Ramsay-esque cooking show where Archie rips contestants to shreds for ratings.
As the bakers take their places under the tent things start going terribly wrong- sugar is replaced with salt, a burner is cranked up to high- but when a body is discovered, the entire contest, along with the fate of Grafton, Betsy's beloved Vermont manor house, hangs in the balance. Will Betsy lose it all?
Now I love a mystery and I love a country manor, especially when it's in Vermont. As a New Englander myself I appreciate Maxwell's descriptions of the manor and the surrounding grounds, the creaking floors, the hidden nooks and crannies. I've seen Maxwell compared to Nita Prose and Anthony Horowitz (Horowitz being my absolute favorite author) but I disagree. Maxwell is in a class of her own with this mystery, weaving in delicious details and scrumptious characters that make The Golden Spoon a winner.