The Muddlemoor Mysteries: Peril at the Bake Off by Ruth Quayle

The Muddlemoor Mysteries: Peril at the Bake Off Reviews

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  Debra Clewer

  I started working on a children’s series in 2020 which features four grandmothers. The first one, the Missing Ingredient Mystery, (yet to be published), involves a grandmother entering a cooking contest. As I sent my manuscript into a writing competition last year, the judges were looking for comparative or similar titles to my own. I discovered The Muddlemoor Mysteries:Peril at the Bake Off, which was released in April, 2021. Set in the U.K., this story revolves around 3 children, Joe Robinson and his cousins, who are staying with their grandmother who enters the yearly local bake-off. The grand prize is afternoon tea with the star of Granny’s favourite soapie. She decides to use a secret recipe which has been handed down for a three-layer chocolate cake. Everything is swimming along until the recipe goes missing before the event. Has someone stolen it? The children certainly think so. In their opinion, the village is full of crime. They suspect the mysterious neighbour Andrea, who has M16 connections. There is the spy cat to consider as well. Where did it come from? Is it a secret robot? Will Granny find her recipe in time to finish the cake and still enter? Told in first-person through the eyes of Joe, this is a fun story for Middle-Grade readers, who can relate to the varying embarrassing situations the children find themselves in.
• 
  rohini

  A brilliant cozy mystery! It was short but sweet. Pip, Tom and Joe were hilarious and fantastic sleuths even though they did get the wrong end of the stick! The mystery was wrapped up nicely as it turns out it wasn't Anthea after all!
  The story follows our main characters Joe and his cousins, Pip and Tom. They are sure it's Anthea who's stolen their Granny's secret recipe. Will they be able to solve the mystery?
  The plot was fast paced and the writing was hilarious! A lovely Middle grade mystery that I would recommend!
• 
  Denise Forrest

  Brilliant detective story for younger readers. Three cousins are sent to stay with their granny in her sleepy village over the summer holidays, but with the village bake off coming up, they are convinced someone is out to steal Gran’s secret recipe. The amateur sleuths are determined to solve the ‘crime’.
  
  This is a great, short chapter book for lower KS2. Children will be able to identify with the characters & will see the humour in some of the contrived situations the cousins get themselves into. I can’t wait to read more in this series.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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  Cathy

  A really fun mystery for younger readers that shows how much trouble children can get themselves into when their imaginations run wild. The characters are fun and the plot worked well (although I never found out why the 'robot' cat beeped!). An entertaining start to what I believe is a new series that I'm sure will be popular in libraries.
  My thanks to #NetGalley and Andersen Press for the ARC in return for an honest review.
• 
  Michelle

  First in a new series of mysteries for children aged 7+. Pip, Tom and Joe are staying with Granny in the village of Muddlemoor for the school holidays.
  
  When the village bake-off competition is announced, Granny is excited to find a 50-year old recipe in her attic that she is sure will help her beat her neighbour, Anthea. When the recipe goes missing, the trio attempt to find the culprit with hilarious results!
  
  A fun, entertaining read for younger children.
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  Bev

  Fun story that younger would be detectives will love. Lots of laughs, some intrigue and a tale that is fast moving enough to keep kids reading. Would be great for children who have just moved on to chapter books.
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  Mrs Walsh

  This is our new class novel and the teacher asked me to read it before we finished in school. It was average. I could see some really potential but it just felt really slow in places and the ending wasn’t the best. An ok read but not one I’m going to be rushing to read again.
• 
  Rob

  An absolute treat! Harriet the Spy meets the Great British Bake Off.
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  Helen

  It was a very sweet charming story.
  It was one of those feel good stories.
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  Wonderlake

  I struggled a bit with the star rating for this one, as I feel that it was a little too young as a "Share at bedtime" book for my daughter (nearly 10). It very much reminded me of the 'Baby Aliens' series by Pamela Butchart which we enjoyed when kiddo was 7-8, but also I was pretty glad to leave them behind. In fact the character of Pip was very much in the vein of Maisie (?) From Baby Aliens - the quiet, somewhat neurotic one who would suddenly pull a ninja move....
  But onto this book. As I said I almost wanted to mark it down for being too young for kiddo (or maybe better suited as one for her to read alone), but tried to see past that.
  
  Joe is spending the summer hols at his granny's house, along with cousins Tom and Pip.
  The big event in the village is a Bake Off, and granny hopes to win with her closely guarded secret recipe for chocolate fudge cake.
  Along the way the children get the wrong end of the stick, with an amusing finale. As an adult it was fairly easy to see where things were going with the story, yet some things remained unexplained - the whirring beeping 'robot spy cat' that turned out to be just a cat?