finished reading

Oh, how I adore a reality TV baking competition show!  This book is a locked-room mystery wrapped around a mystery!  Because the six contestants and host take turns narrating, there isn't a lot of opportunity for backstory.  But the intensity of relationships and bonds forming is captured.  And it was interesting how each narrator had their own expectation of The Golden Spoon.  When sabotage occurs on set, everyone is a suspect and I loved it! I thoroughly enjoyed the insider view of creating a reality TV baking competition show.  I also enjoyed the setting--how the Grafton Manor is a character.

The host and star of the show, Betsy Martin, is a complex character.  Haughty yet mindful of her audience, she has graciously filmed 10 years of The Golden Spoon at the family home.  Her interactions with her new co-host a cooking hotshot and playboy are funny.  Actually, there's quite a bit of humor in the book--some of it tongue-in-cheek, some of it at the different tropes.

I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say there is a mystery within the mystery and both of them kept my attention.

From the publisher:

Every summer for the past ten years, six awe-struck bakers have descended on the grounds of Grafton, the leafy and imposing Vermont estate that is not only the filming site for “Bake Week” but also the childhood home of the show’s famous host, celebrated baker Betsy Martin.

The author of numerous best-selling cookbooks and hailed as “America’s Grandmother,” Betsy Martin isn’t as warm off-screen as on, although no one needs to know that but her. She has always demanded perfection, and gotten it with a smile, but this year something is off. Things go awry as the baking competition begins. At first, it’s merely sabotage—sugar replaced with salt, a burner turned too high—but when a body is discovered, everyone is a suspect.