So, it turns out, that Goodreads Giveaways are real! I won a copy of The Golden Spoon and about a week and a half after the email, the book did indeed appear. I have to admit, I’d only been submitting to those only half believing it was a real thing.
The Golden Spoon was billed as Great British Bake off meets Clue, so I was figuring it’s a murder mystery on a baking competition, which is accurate. Ever wonder who would win in a fight among the judges past or present (Mary, Paul, Prue)? Are those persistent mistakes that seem to happen every year really errors or sabotage? I was also kind of hoping for the cozy, which this starts out as, but then turns out kind of not. The twists are 1) the setting is in the US, 2) the location is actually the host’s (Betsy Martin) family estate (Grafton). Betsy is “America’s Grandmother, and everyone on the show really just wants to impress her. The story is told from alternating contestant and Betsy’s perspectives, so each contestant at first comes off as what you see on the model show. There’s the bright eyed young talent from small town Hannah, the person who’s only been baking about a year (journalist Stella), the teacher (Bronx math teach Gerald), the creative one (Pradyumnadas, creator of popular app, now bored/retired at young age), everyone’s grandma (Lottie, retired nurse with her family recipes), and the super detail oriented one (Peter, architect/construction worker). Obviously, all will not be as it seems (is X really that nice, are X and Y into each other, I really hope Z goes home- they annoy me, etc.).
Then there’s the other catch, the co-host is new this year, Betsy doesn’t want to share the spotlight although she needs the show to stay spare popular to keep her family home. Imagine if Prue or more likely Mary Berry hated Paul Hollywood, the upstart showman who knows nothing about baking really. This could be highly entertaining. But it’s not played for the funny, and this is how things go dark and lose the cozy. Some of the characters have apparently forgotten some really serious past traumas, one or two are very much not as nice as they are on camera, and maybe the occasional “OMG, how did I mistake salt for sugar!”, “My ingredient has gone off!”, or “I could have sworn I turned my oven on!” are actually not mistakes….
I was really hoping for the satire/parody to be part of the core here, and it’s really not. The general premise will be recognizable, as will the contestants, as will some of the happenings; that said the past trauma’s resurfacing, the who’s really not nice (but to be fair, who actually is that nice too), and what happens after the murder are not what I’d call cozy. No one seems to like the victim, so that’s ok, but the other problems/crimes that were not directly connected to the main murder, those don’t seem to add a lot, other than make it clear who did not do the main murder (we, the reader know if we pay attention, but the majority of the story don’t) but justice is kind of done anyways, but all seems a little unsatisfying because of some of the other revelations about one or two’s folks backstories. I really didn’t sympathize with one of the key figures that I’m pretty sure I was supposed to because it almost felt like said individual could have been actually intentionally wanting something like this result because of old personal reasons. The other thing that I was a little disappointed in was There were no hosts, no Mary and Sue, Noel and friend, Liam and Rav, none of that, and I think that’s kind of a missed opportunity, especially with the answer to one of the big questions not quite related to the murder.
The first half felt like all the world building, and the second half was all the mystery; that might also have been a place where more of the entertainment could be built in, more combining and gradually revealing not just people’s backgrounds, but also their personalities, motives, etc. It’s also a little unfortunate that the murder happens well before the finals, so we don’t get to see the full competition; a few folks do go home, but it’s not quite a complete competition. There’s definitely winners and losers in the end, but it’s not always who you really want, although there is some degree of getting what’s deserved. Overall, it’s not a bad read or story, but it’s not what I was hoping for.
