The Golden Spoon combines the art of the murder mystery with the art of baking - providing a murder mystery for fans of the Great British Bakeoff. Betsy Martin is about to host the tenth season of the wildly popular show Bake Week at her palatial gothic mansion. Betsy has a public persona as America's benevolent baking grandma, and had always been the solo host of Bake Week until the introduction of Archie Morris, a tanned, slick, winking womanizer, added to "modernize" the program. The six contestants arrive for the competition and then a very subtle sabotage commences - substitution of salt for sugar, a refrigerator door left open, a stove burner cranked to high - until tensions rise and someone is dead. The carefully hidden secrets of the contestants and the hosts are about to be revealed...

I had a lot of fun reading this novel! I couldn't help but picture Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood while reading, although I am sure that "any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental" etc., etc. The story is told from multiple perspectives and the reader finds out what the characters really think behind their polite, TV-ready public faces. It doesn't take a master detective to figure out who was behind the murder, but that isn't a deal-breaker in my view. The fun lies in enjoying the interactions between the competitors and the hosts, and in discovering the backstories of the characters. If you enjoy a cozy mystery and are a fan of competitive baking shows, then you will enjoy this one.