by Tracy Condie & Victoria Hamilton

This week we a review of the latest Merry Muffin Mystery by Victoria Hamilton, along with a fun guest post by Victoria about her series and her love of autumn, along with a muffin recipe. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card, and a link to purchase the book from Amazon.

Thanks for Muffin: A Merry Muffin Mystery by Victoria Hamilton
Review by Tracy Condie

Merry Wynter and Percival “Pish” Lincoln are hosting an elegant inaugural gala to introduce the Wynter Woods Center for the Performing Arts. Guests will travel via luxury party buses from Manhattan to Western New York for the opportunity to dress to the nines and have a holiday experience.

Among the guests are a world-renowned soprano soloist and her equally talented offspring, an actor, a 90s popstar, and a producer/director. Several guests will be staying over the weekend to enjoy an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. The last thing Merry needs is a disagreeable, philandering, muckraker reporter streaming an unflattering video and nasty bit of commentary about the gala and the attendees. He ends up dead.

This is book 8 of the Merry Muffin Mystery series. It can be read as a stand-alone cozy. I was not lost or confused while enjoying the story, but knowing more about the history of the characters and their relationships would have enhanced my reading experience. Ms. Hamilton includes a “Cast of Characters” at the beginning of the book which helped immensely. She also includes a few recipes at the conclusion of the story which are quite tasty and simple enough for any level of cook to complete. I enjoyed making and eating the savory Cheddar and Buckwheat Scones with a nice bowl of stew. I also have plans to try the Blueberry-Sour Cream Coffee Cake Muffins.

Merry, our sleuth, is a smart cookie, or baker, I should say. She is easy to relate to and has a real big heart of gold regardless of what some people might think. She isn’t an heiress or an entitled well-to-do, but a hard worker with an amazing baking ability that has led to a successful business.

The castle she inherits is a bit of a shambles and did not come with a fix-it fund. So, of course she is going to do anything she can to help solve the murder of the reporter before the news hits the net and threatens all that she and her best buddy Pish have accomplished.

Being a smart lady also means that she surrounds herself with smart people. Her hunky husband, Virgil, a former cop turned private investigator, is pulled in on the case by local law enforcement. Merry’s other friends pitch in and help in a variety of ways as suspects pop up left and right as she learns more about her guests and their personal histories. Who would have guessed that the gala was going to be seven degrees of Dan Sooner?

There are plenty of clues and plenty of red herrings to keep you in that armchair sleuthing your way through the book. I might not have guessed who did the deed, but I really enjoyed reading this culinary cozy and will be going back to the start of the series not only to catch up, but to get all those muffin recipes.

Tracy Condie is a paralegal by day and cozy armchair sleuth by night. When she is not working or reading, she enjoys preparing the recipes found in culinary cozies or researching recipes of meal items described therein and sharing reviews of both books and food on Instagram and on KRL. She lives in Corona, California with her husband and dog Zoolie, and looks forward to visiting with their grown sons when their time permits.

Thanks for Muffin & That Autumnal Feel
By: Victoria Hamilton

If you’re unfamiliar with my work, I am Victoria Hamilton, and I write several mystery series, two cozy and an historical. I write the Lady Anne mystery series set in Georgian England, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, starring Jaymie Leighton Müller and set in Queensville Michigan, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries.

More about that series here: the very first book of my Merry Muffin Mysteries starts with Merry Wynter showing up in Autumn Vale in Western New York to have a look at her inheritance, a real American castle.

Right from the beginning I guess I saw the series as autumnal. I mean, it’s in the town name, Autumn Vale! And most of the books are set in autumn.

Why? Probably because that’s my favorite season. Living in a four-season country like Canada, with snowy winters, blazing hot summers, and where even spring seems to switch uncomfortably between freezing rain and blistering sunshine, autumn is a welcome interlude, a gentle reminder that life can be melancholy and sweet. We anticipate holidays like Thanksgiving in October, which require seasonal cooking and baking. Outdoor work is confined to the seasonally bracing, Hallmark-esque raking and bagging of colorful leaves.

I love it. Adore it!

If you haven’t read the Merry Muffin Mysteries I hope you’ll try them. They are set on a picture-perfect autumnal property surrounded by Wynter Woods (Merry’s last name is Wynter!) and near the town of Autumn Vale, where I’ve created a place I’d like to live and people I’d love to hang out with. Despite that, there are murders, of course, that Merry and her intrepid band of friends, old and new, must solve, while Merry figures out how to keep her gorgeous American castle and stay solvent. I have a blast writing these books.

All that, and a bunch of recipes! Merry bakes muffins, as is implied in the series name, and there is a muffin recipe in every book, but I also include a couple more recipes as well. One in Thanks for Muffin is a Thanksgiving leftover recipe that will blow your socks off! AND use up a lot of that leftover turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce.

I thought you all might like to try one of Merry’s no-fail muffin recipes, one that is Fit for the King. I called it that because it has that Elvis-y combination of banana and peanut butter, with the delicious addition of chocolate chips. How much more flavor can you cram into a muffin?

Try them, and I hope you’ll read some Merry Muffin Mysteries. If you’ve read the series, catch up with Merry and all her friends in Thanks for Muffin, now out in paperback and eBook! Ordering links are on my website.

Fit for the King Muffins
(Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins)

Yield: 12
Prep Time: 10 min.
Cook Time: 13-15 min.
Total Time: 23-25 min.

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 tbsp turbinado sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a muffin tray with cooking spray.

Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. In a second bowl, beat sugars and softened butter. Add the mashed bananas, peanut butter, vanilla, and egg to the sugar and butter mixture. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture until just combined; add 3/4 cup of chocolate chips to the batter and mix. Spoon batter evenly into the prepared muffin cups.

Sprinkle the top of each muffin evenly with the remaining chocolate chips and turbinado sugar.

Bake in a preheated oven for 13-15 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before removing from the tray and placing on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy.

You can click here to purchase this book from Amazon.

To enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “muffin” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen November 22, 2025. U.S. & Canadian residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

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Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of three mystery series: the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries. She also writes a Regency-set historical mystery series, starting with A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder. Visit her website at victoriahamiltonmysteries.com.
Social Details:
Website: VictoriaHamiltonMysteries.com (Sign up for her newsletter for all the latest!)
On Facebook: facebook.com/VictoriaHamiltonMysteryAuthor
On BlueSky: @mysteryvictoria.bsky.social
On Instagram: instagram.com/mysteryauthorvictoriahamilton
Goodreads: goodreads.com/author/show/598635.Victoria_Hamilton
Amazon: amazon.com/Victoria-Hamilton/e/B007T7LGAU

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.