Death by Chocolate
Anna Brooke
Chicken House

Having to move to France and leave her best friends Kate and Rose behind in England is only the start of Coco Bean’s limited new life. Her Francophile parents have given up their teaching jobs, taken a bank loan and bought a run down French hotel in a village named Mont-Lavande, surrounded by lavender fields. Her mum and dad describe it as full of potential but to Coco it has nothing to offer, especially as she’s unable to speak French. That at least is when she first arrives but it’s not long before weird things begin to happen: for a start an icy wind, a swinging lampshade and the smell of chocolate in her bedroom during the night. It’s not a ghost surely, Coco tells herself, but her parents are too busy preparing for the opening of Hotel Framboise and trying to get themselves noticed on social media to take much notice.

Meanwhile on the staircase there sits a ghost contemplating how he can get rid of the family that’s just moved in. Then, Coco encounters a boy named Louis at the boulangerie who asks her if she’s seen the ghost. Unsurprisingly she starts to feel confused and a little scared.

The ghost, Monsieur Isidore Framboise, knows a great deal about chocolate and agrees to share his famed skills with Coco and her new found friend Louis in exchange for their help in finding out the truth behind his murder.
Enter Atticus Carmichael, celebrity chef and presenter of Coco and her friends Kate and Rose’s favourite TV baking show, Bake the Day. He tells Coco’s parents that he’s looking for ideas for a new TV show and was considering featuring their hotel and straight away he’s given a room and made welcome. Are his motives exactly what he says though? Could there possibly be a link between Carmichael and Monsieur Framboise?

To say this is a sweet story would be inaccurate although chocolate is one of its main ingredients, it’s also a race against time and an intriguing mystery in which love plays a part. It should go down well with older KS2 readers, many of whom, like this reviewer will devour it in a single day.