Book Review: The Golden Spoon | Jessa Maxwell

Part cozy mystery, part feel good baking novel, and part quirky contemporary fiction, The Golden Spoon is the sort of easy read that is a perfect palate cleanser. Not unlike the appeal of it’s loose inspiration The Great British Bakeoff, this locked room mystery creeps up on you and before you realize it you’ve consumed the whole thing in one sitting.

If you’re looking for something fast-paced and thriller-y, this isn’t it. In a delightful way, I almost forgot I was reading a mystery at first until what starts as minor incidents escalate towards secrets, lies, and murder. The Golden Spoon certainly takes the cake for a light-hearted mystery that delivers a few shocks and twists!

Setting and Characters

Set at a country estate in Vermont, The Golden Spoon revolves around a reality baking show called Bake Week hosted by Betsy Martin, owner of the Grafton estate where it is filmed, cookbook author, and creator of the light-hearted baking competition that has stolen the hearts of the world. Betsy Martin is 72 years-old and is known as “America’s Grandmother”.

Melanie is the ambitious assistant to Betsy who sees herself as the showrunner and force behind why Bake Week is so successful (much to Betsy’s disagreement). Archie Morris is an award-winning baker and host of a more cutthroat cooking show (it reminded me a bit of Hell’s Kitchen in the description of it) who has just joined Betsy as the first co-host of Bake Week in the show’s history.

The six contestants competing on this season of Bake Week are the main narrators. Stella Velasquez, former-journalist turned baker who has been baking for less than a year when she joins the cast, but grew up on Betsy’s cookbooks during a rough and isolated childhood. Hannah Severson is the second-youngest contestant in the show’s history and has her eyes on the prize (and will do anything to win the title).

Gerald Baptiste is a math teacher by day and a precise and talented baker by night. Pradyumna Das is a wealthy, former-CEO who sold his successful start-up and has turned to baking as a way to experiment and flex his creativity. Lottie Byrne is the oldest contestant this season, a registered nurse, and a talented baker. Peter Gellar is a construction worker with a passion for old buildings and regularly bakes delightful treats for his husband Frederick, their daughter, and his friends.

Plot and Structure

The story is narrated in alternating chapters from the perspective of each of the six contestants and the host of the show Betsy Martin. The book is broken up into parts that primarily correspond with each day of Bake Week, which each cover a round of the competition and feature the challenge for that day, the baking and filming, and then the judging and elimination.

The book begins in the 10^th season of Bake Week, which became a smash success as it charmed viewers across the world. The reality baking competition show is filmed at the Vermont Estate owned by host Betsy Martin, whose reputation as “America’s grandmother” is in publicity alone. Behind the scenes Betsy is a smart, savvy, and at times cutthroat business woman.

In its 10^th season, the show has brought on a co-host Archie Morris, much to Betsy’s dismay. The producers are hoping this attractive celebrity chef will bring in the younger viewers to the franchise. As the six bakers and contestants arrive at the estate, ready to crush the competition. But each of the contestants have secrets and different motivations for why they joined the competition, and one of them may be willing to do anything to win.

As the competition heats up, mysterious “accidents” begin to happen. While these may be adding drama to the show, some of the contestants and production crew begin to suspect that someone is sabotaging the competition. Things ramp up when it becomes clear that someone isn’t just there to compete, they are there for murder…

Overall Thoughts

This is a light and easy read, though some readers may find that the mystery takes a bit too long to get going. I didn’t mind that, because I went into it just enjoying it as more of a light contemporary fiction with a mystery element. I’m also a fairly frequent dabbler into the cozy mystery genre and I find that this pacing is much more consistent in that genre than with other thrillers, police procedurals, and darker mysteries. This is perhaps the problem with so many books being lumped into a broad genre! But I digress…

In terms of character development, many of the characters feel a bit more like caricatures or type-casting, which worked with the reality TV theme. If you need to like all of the characters, this isn’t the book for you! As readers, we are getting lots of different perspectives that all drop clues and context to what may be going on. With so many narrators and contestants being eliminated from the competition throughout, some characters end up being better-developed than others.

I found Betsy to be so compelling—I loved the dichotomy between her sweet on-air persona and her cutthroat off-stage personality. Afterall, someone doesn’t become as successful as Betsy is by being sweet as pie and naïve!

As with many cozy mysteries, there is a bit of humor to this that I enjoyed. The goal of these sorts of books is to keep a murder plot as light as possible, which makes it accessible to more readers who may not be well-suited to darker thrillers. I am enjoying this new brand of cozy mystery that I think I’d describe as contemporary cozy mysteries, because they have a bit more bite and message to them than the typical cozy, and work easily as standalones rather than series.

The ending has some good twists and the epilogue brings a lot of satisfying conclusion to the mystery. This may not work for all readers, but know what to expect and you’ll find this a refreshing mystery with a fun-filled baking competition spin.

Thank you to Atria Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Book (Goodreads)

For six amateur bakers, competing in Bake Week is a dream come true.

When they arrive at Grafton Manor to compete, they’re ready to do whatever it takes to win the ultimate The Golden Spoon.

But for the show’s famous host, Betsy Martin, Bake Week is more than just a competition. Grafton Manor is her family’s home and legacy – and Bake Week is her life’s work. It’s imperative that both continue to succeed.

But as the competition commences, things begin to go awry. At first, it’s small acts of sabotage. Someone switching sugar for salt. A hob turned far too high.

But when a body is discovered, it’s clear that for someone in the competition, The Golden Spoon is a prize worth killing for…