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Pumpkin Hollow Mystery #1
Candy Coated Murder
Have you ever made decisions that you later regretted? Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut about how mean Hazel Martin was. Because when she ended up dead, the police were looking at me.
Mia Jordan has done the one thing she swore she wouldn’t return to the small town she thought she left behind. But Pumpkin Hollow has changed. The once thriving Halloween-themed town is down on its luck, and to make matters worse, someone killed Hazel. Can Mia help save the town and find the killer before she winds up in jail? Or dead?
Welcome to the warmth and charm of Pumpkin Hollow, where you'll find a family-owned candy store, loveable characters, and a dead body or two. Pumpkin Hollow Mysteries are clean cozy mysteries without paranormal elements.
Mia Jordan has done the one thing she swore she wouldn’t return to the small town she thought she left behind. But Pumpkin Hollow has changed. The once thriving Halloween-themed town is down on its luck, and to make matters worse, someone killed Hazel. Can Mia help save the town and find the killer before she winds up in jail? Or dead?
Welcome to the warmth and charm of Pumpkin Hollow, where you'll find a family-owned candy store, loveable characters, and a dead body or two. Pumpkin Hollow Mysteries are clean cozy mysteries without paranormal elements.
154 pages, Paperback
First published July 17, 2017
251 people are currently reading
742 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
September 8, 2022
Pumpkin Hollow is a town that celebrates Halloween all year long. Mia Jordan has recently moved home to help her mother run her candy store. She finds the town embroiled in a controversy about whether to drop the local Halloween theme. Some think it’s too much. Others think it helps local businesses. When a character who annoyed quite a few of the locals is murdered, is there a connection to the drive to get rid of the Halloween theme? This was a very short cozy mystery novella that was pretty simple, but if you’re looking for a light read with a Halloween theme, it's cute and I know I enjoyed it for a nice fall read. I’m definitely planning to check out book two.
October 25, 2024
Halloweentown meets Nancy Drew in this cozy who dunnit mystery. This was perfect for the season and super fast paced. The dialogue wasn’t the best but for a quick and easy Halloween mystery it was good. This book was corny at times but going into a cozy mystery open minded knowing what it is and accepting that it is supposed to be a light read will help you along. I will be checking out the rest of the series when I need an easier read and or palette cleanser.
November 1, 2018
Cute start to the series. I love all things Halloween so I can easily relate to the characters in Pumpkin Hollow.
I'm reading the next one on the series and I'm enjoying it so much.
I'm reading the next one on the series and I'm enjoying it so much.
September 1, 2021
3.5 out of 5!
This was my first foray into cozy mysteries and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was looking for something that takes place during the fall/Halloween time, but also would be on the lighter side, and this was perfect.
I loved the main character, Mia, and could relate to her struggles of becoming an adult and having to figure out a "profession." And the antics of all of the nosey townspeople who live in Pumpkin Hollow was just so entertaining. The writing was easy, breezy, and kept me turning the pages.
On to the murder... it happened right away which is always a bonus and I was also pretty pleased with the reveal of whodunit. But this does require suspension of disbelief which is why it's not a 4 star read for me. (Also I wanted to leave room to rate the next book in the series higher.)
So if you're looking for a cozy mystery to read during the Autumn months I definitely suggest this one. Lots of fun!
This was my first foray into cozy mysteries and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was looking for something that takes place during the fall/Halloween time, but also would be on the lighter side, and this was perfect.
I loved the main character, Mia, and could relate to her struggles of becoming an adult and having to figure out a "profession." And the antics of all of the nosey townspeople who live in Pumpkin Hollow was just so entertaining. The writing was easy, breezy, and kept me turning the pages.
On to the murder... it happened right away which is always a bonus and I was also pretty pleased with the reveal of whodunit. But this does require suspension of disbelief which is why it's not a 4 star read for me. (Also I wanted to leave room to rate the next book in the series higher.)
So if you're looking for a cozy mystery to read during the Autumn months I definitely suggest this one. Lots of fun!
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October 16, 2022I'm going to give up on this one at 58%. I thought it was going to be a fun festive read, but I really don't like the main character. She seems pretty rude to me. Plus, everyone keeps saying things that no person would say about a murdered person even if they didn't like that person, especially with a murder investigation going on. So far, I'm pretty bored. I don't really like anyone and I don't care who committed the murder or why. If I'm not invested in the story at 58%, then it's just not worth the time it will take to finish.
October 29, 2023
3,5 ⭐️
Pumpkin Hollow - eine Halloween Stadt 😍 🎃 👻 🍭 🍬
Es war irgendwie super cute! Halloween Town vibes mit einer Small town voll Menschen.
Es war sehr kurzweilig, was mir aktuell sehr gut gefällt 😄 trotz einiger sehr grantiger Bewohner:innen mochte ich den vibe doch sehr.
Pumpkin Hollow - eine Halloween Stadt 😍 🎃 👻 🍭 🍬
Es war irgendwie super cute! Halloween Town vibes mit einer Small town voll Menschen.
Es war sehr kurzweilig, was mir aktuell sehr gut gefällt 😄 trotz einiger sehr grantiger Bewohner:innen mochte ich den vibe doch sehr.
October 30, 2020
Pralines without pecans! No way!
Save the perpetual Halloween season for Pumpkin Hollow! This book is perfect for Halloween!
Summon up your courage and imagine, if you can, the very idea someone would request an order of pralines WITHOUT PECANS!! Well, I never. Ghastly! A candy store horror! Scared the hell out of me.
All kidding aside, this is the kind of Cozy Mystery book I love. A little murder, no blood and guts. A mystery. Suspicious neighbors in a quaint small town. The quest to save the town and a bit of romantic promise. I am hooked on this series at this point. A good read!
Save the perpetual Halloween season for Pumpkin Hollow! This book is perfect for Halloween!
Summon up your courage and imagine, if you can, the very idea someone would request an order of pralines WITHOUT PECANS!! Well, I never. Ghastly! A candy store horror! Scared the hell out of me.
All kidding aside, this is the kind of Cozy Mystery book I love. A little murder, no blood and guts. A mystery. Suspicious neighbors in a quaint small town. The quest to save the town and a bit of romantic promise. I am hooked on this series at this point. A good read!
October 12, 2022
Candy Coated Murder was a fun start to a cozy mystery series set in a Halloween-themed town.
Mia Jordan never thought she'd return to her small hometown, but ten years after leaving that's exactly what she's done. Pumpkin Hollow used to be a thriving Halloween-themed town but with lower than expected turnout the last few years, the town is struggling. Now the mayor and some of the townspeople want to do away with the theme all together. And to make matters worse, someone has killed Hazel Martin and used the Halloween theme to do it. Mia wants to help save the town but first she'll need to find a killer before she ends up their next victim.
Candy Coated Murder was a quick read that was overall enjoyable and was perfect for the Halloween season. The book opens with Hazel coming into the candy store Mia's family owns and getting into a verbal altercation with Mia. From there, the story takes off with Mia finding Hazel's body later that day. The mystery of who killed Hazel isn't the easiest to solve as she was basically universally hated by everyone in town. So there's no shortage of suspects and everyone seems to have some sort of motive. Mia only does some minor investigating as she mostly leaves things to the police which was a change from other cozies I've read. I was surprised by the identity of the killer as well as the final scene between them and Mia as it was unexpected.
Mia was sort of hit-or-miss for me as a character. I liked her dedication to saving the town and how she had some fresh ideas on how to bring more business to the town. Also, her relationship with her family is great and I liked how close they were. Beyond that though she did have some annoying traits. For one, she was convinced the police viewed her as a suspect because they interviewed her several times. Her assumption made no sense as of course they would interview her as she found the body and her family lived next-door to the victim. Also, she kept getting upset when people were happy Hazel was dead. Hazel ruined a lot of people's lives so it's understandable people would be happy to see her gone and I just didn't understand Mia's reaction.
Overall Candy Coated Murder was an entertaining read and I'm interested enough to check out the next book in the series, Murderously Sweet.
Mia Jordan never thought she'd return to her small hometown, but ten years after leaving that's exactly what she's done. Pumpkin Hollow used to be a thriving Halloween-themed town but with lower than expected turnout the last few years, the town is struggling. Now the mayor and some of the townspeople want to do away with the theme all together. And to make matters worse, someone has killed Hazel Martin and used the Halloween theme to do it. Mia wants to help save the town but first she'll need to find a killer before she ends up their next victim.
Candy Coated Murder was a quick read that was overall enjoyable and was perfect for the Halloween season. The book opens with Hazel coming into the candy store Mia's family owns and getting into a verbal altercation with Mia. From there, the story takes off with Mia finding Hazel's body later that day. The mystery of who killed Hazel isn't the easiest to solve as she was basically universally hated by everyone in town. So there's no shortage of suspects and everyone seems to have some sort of motive. Mia only does some minor investigating as she mostly leaves things to the police which was a change from other cozies I've read. I was surprised by the identity of the killer as well as the final scene between them and Mia as it was unexpected.
Mia was sort of hit-or-miss for me as a character. I liked her dedication to saving the town and how she had some fresh ideas on how to bring more business to the town. Also, her relationship with her family is great and I liked how close they were. Beyond that though she did have some annoying traits. For one, she was convinced the police viewed her as a suspect because they interviewed her several times. Her assumption made no sense as of course they would interview her as she found the body and her family lived next-door to the victim. Also, she kept getting upset when people were happy Hazel was dead. Hazel ruined a lot of people's lives so it's understandable people would be happy to see her gone and I just didn't understand Mia's reaction.
Overall Candy Coated Murder was an entertaining read and I'm interested enough to check out the next book in the series, Murderously Sweet.
September 16, 2024
wow, Hazel is a bitch.... 🙄🙄
Mia's mom is weird... 😂🤣 She seems a bit insensitive in some situations and naive in others.
The drama in this book is cozy. I'm not a cozy mystery fan but the plot still currently has my attention. This feels kind of like a lifetime movie in a book. I despise the lifetime channel 🤮
Mia & Amanda's friendship doesn't feel completely genuine....
PLEASE don't let Ethan and Mia end up together- she seems too thoroughly traumatized over the spider incident....so if they do end up together, to me it'll seem like WTF?? all the complaining would just be an unnecessary thing we had to read about.
Maybe Mia's mom is the murderer....
Maybe Fagan Branigan, the costume shop owner.....he seemed pretty upset about the town not being Halloween themed anymore...
i'm not a fan of this thinking thing while reading.... me and mysteries are not friends 😂🤣😂😆
Mia as a character now: 🤮🤮 I didnt fall in love with her character at the start but now she just makes me wanna puke and 🙄🙄
*Sigh* I'm over it all now.... Let's get it over with...
Do lawyers not exist in cozy mysteries??? 🤦🏽♀️
Mia's mom is weird... 😂🤣 She seems a bit insensitive in some situations and naive in others.
The drama in this book is cozy. I'm not a cozy mystery fan but the plot still currently has my attention. This feels kind of like a lifetime movie in a book. I despise the lifetime channel 🤮
Mia & Amanda's friendship doesn't feel completely genuine....
PLEASE don't let Ethan and Mia end up together- she seems too thoroughly traumatized over the spider incident....so if they do end up together, to me it'll seem like WTF?? all the complaining would just be an unnecessary thing we had to read about.
Maybe Mia's mom is the murderer....
Maybe Fagan Branigan, the costume shop owner.....he seemed pretty upset about the town not being Halloween themed anymore...
i'm not a fan of this thinking thing while reading.... me and mysteries are not friends 😂🤣😂😆
Mia as a character now: 🤮🤮 I didnt fall in love with her character at the start but now she just makes me wanna puke and 🙄🙄
*Sigh* I'm over it all now.... Let's get it over with...
Do lawyers not exist in cozy mysteries??? 🤦🏽♀️
October 2, 2019
A simple cozy mystery that equals a fast read. While the plot doesn't have much depth, the characters are enjoyable and the town of Pumpkin Hallow is charming. The author did a nice job of laying the ground work of an underlying arc that should help add some meat to the next few books in the series, which I will be reading.
This is a great choice when you're looking for something to read while waiting in the grocery store line, looking for something light to read before bed, or on cold, drippy nights when you just want to curl up with an interesting read and a good cup of hot chocolate.
This is a great choice when you're looking for something to read while waiting in the grocery store line, looking for something light to read before bed, or on cold, drippy nights when you just want to curl up with an interesting read and a good cup of hot chocolate.
August 17, 2020
Loved it!
October 26, 2022
Since I enjoyed my trip through all the Freshly Baked books so far from this author, I wanted to try another longer series she's got, and I was happy to meet the characters of Pumpkin Hollow. I liked Mia and her mom a lot! The town's definitely got some Halloween grinches on their hands though, and it seemed like the grinches were determined to end the long Halloween season (Labor Day to November sometimes), but some businesses were up in arms saying it'd really kill their sales.
There was a killing but not of sales. The grumpiest woman in town was offed but the weird thing was she hated Halloween so unfortunately those who were pro-Halloween were probably a little worried they'd be looked at as suspects. I was never sure who killed Hazel but the showdown was pretty exciting and Mia made a narrow escape. I really enjoyed hearing about a town that celebrates Halloween for three months, sounds pretty cool to me! I found I'd gotten the second book too so I'll be reading that soon!
There was a killing but not of sales. The grumpiest woman in town was offed but the weird thing was she hated Halloween so unfortunately those who were pro-Halloween were probably a little worried they'd be looked at as suspects. I was never sure who killed Hazel but the showdown was pretty exciting and Mia made a narrow escape. I really enjoyed hearing about a town that celebrates Halloween for three months, sounds pretty cool to me! I found I'd gotten the second book too so I'll be reading that soon!
October 21, 2021
Read for #Book1CoziesClub
I really enjoyed this one! Not sure if it had to do with the season that I read this in or if it was just the setting of this series, but I'll definitely be continuing with this series.
I really enjoyed this one! Not sure if it had to do with the season that I read this in or if it was just the setting of this series, but I'll definitely be continuing with this series.
October 28, 2021
A little village Halloween-themed all year long? Count me in!
It was a nice cozy mystery, the mystery part was just ok but the small village vibe was very good. It's the first in a series that I will surely continue.
It was a nice cozy mystery, the mystery part was just ok but the small village vibe was very good. It's the first in a series that I will surely continue.
September 3, 2025
This was kind of a fun time, I liked the concept but not the execution. The writing seemed really stiff and the characters were one dimensional. Also I felt like more could’ve been done with the twist/mystery of all it. Probably won’t be reading the rest in this series but we’ll see.
November 1, 2019
Fun,quick read.
Read
January 12, 2022Very light, easy read for Autumn.
October 5, 2022
Super cozy and cute, I loved it! So perfect for Halloween. No blood and gory details, just a lot of details about Halloween treats. I was hoping for a little more action, but this was just as good.
October 31, 2025
This cozy mystery embraces full‑on Halloween vibes in the town of Pumpkin Hollow, with a lighthearted premise and a murder that kicks off the story. The setting and seasonal cheer are its strongest aspects—if you’re in the mood for pumpkin‑spiced treats, candy‑shop imagery and a fun “whodunit” backdrop, it delivers. On the flip side, the mystery itself and the character development are fairly thin, and some readers found the main character a bit grating or the pacing a little rushed. All told, it’s a quick and easy read perfect for a Halloween‑themed binge, but not one you’ll likely call deeply memorable.
August 27, 2024
This is so cute and perfect for the fall season. I'm so excited to make my way through this series over then next few months. There are a lot of books in the series, but they are all just over 100 pages and available on KU so it shouldn't take too long to get through them all.
October 22, 2018
Fun Halloween 🎃 read
I enjoyed this cosy. It's perfect reading for this time of year. My only regret is that Pumpkin Hollow isn't a real town. I would love a visit to a Halloween themed town. I will definitely read the others in the series.
I enjoyed this cosy. It's perfect reading for this time of year. My only regret is that Pumpkin Hollow isn't a real town. I would love a visit to a Halloween themed town. I will definitely read the others in the series.
November 22, 2020
I loved this story, the characters were great! I love how it all turn out, the setting is brilliant! I loved the mystery in it
October 25, 2020
Fun.
I chose this book at random as I sometimes do, and I'm glad I did. I found another little gem. A town all about Halloween is the kind of place where I would live. The story and characters were intriguing and engaging. I am interested to learn more about these characters and their adventures. This book is definitely worth reading.
I chose this book at random as I sometimes do, and I'm glad I did. I found another little gem. A town all about Halloween is the kind of place where I would live. The story and characters were intriguing and engaging. I am interested to learn more about these characters and their adventures. This book is definitely worth reading.
July 15, 2018
Who killed the scarecrow?
Should have been a great read as it had a good mix of interesting characters and the killer took me by surprise. However it left me feeling a bit flat at the end. Possibly could have done with better dialogue. Not one of my favourites.
Should have been a great read as it had a good mix of interesting characters and the killer took me by surprise. However it left me feeling a bit flat at the end. Possibly could have done with better dialogue. Not one of my favourites.
September 7, 2018
Fun Halloween mystery!
This was a pretty cute mystery. I love Halloween and I would love in a town like Pumpkin Hollow. Plus all the talk about treats made me want to make fudge!! The mystery was well written for a first in a new series.
This was a pretty cute mystery. I love Halloween and I would love in a town like Pumpkin Hollow. Plus all the talk about treats made me want to make fudge!! The mystery was well written for a first in a new series.
April 2, 2023
Although this book was a cute little story, I think it lacked substance and focused more on saving the theme of the town than the actual murder. It wasn't a horrible book, but it wasn't totally up to my standards for reading. Just a 3-star for me on this one.
September 15, 2017
Good read
Well written with a plot that actually has a surprise ending. A fun read for you if you are given a short time to read.
Well written with a plot that actually has a surprise ending. A fun read for you if you are given a short time to read.
September 25, 2017
I loved the book. Such a fun mystery. I will be reading more from Kate Bell.
October 2, 2021
I was expecting something quirky and fun instead I got bland and boring.
December 15, 2021
really good, will love to read the next books in this series
Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews