Article and Interview by Elise Cooper
Case of the Bleus by Korina Moss is a fun cozy mystery. It brings back all the fun characters including the “cheese.”
Cheesemongers from across the Northwest have come to the Sonoma Valley for the Northwest Cheese Invitational. As owner of the local cheese shop, Curds & Whey, Willa Bauer loves it. The event showcases custom cheese creations, and it’s the perfect time to gather with old colleagues to honor her former boss, the late and grate cheese legend, Max Dumas. He was famous for journeying into the wild bleu yonder to where he aged his award-winning custom Church Bleu. Only Max knew the recipe and location to his beloved cheese, and many are eager to have these revealed at his will reading.
But instead of naming someone to inherit his cheese and its secrets, Max stuns everyone with one cryptic clue. When a fellow cheesemonger dies under mysterious circumstances––the woman they all thought would get the secrets to Max’s prized possession––everyone falls under suspicion. Willa adores Church Bleu as much as the next cheese connoisseur, but it’s not to die for.
As the holiday season approaches readers should pick up this book for not only a good mystery with likeable characters, but also for some food ideas.
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Korina Moss: The inspiration came from a blue cheese I tried last year called Rogue River Blue (from Rogue Creamery in Oregon). It’s a World Champion cheese, only sold for a few months a year, and is so popular that it always sells out. So it made me consider whether there would be a cheese so popular and valuable that someone might think it’s worth killing for. Luckily, my research didn’t turn up cheese that anyone has killed for, but I did discover there are some very valuable cheeses and there’s a black market for cheese that’s been stolen. (I wrote a blogpost about it for Writers Who Kill.)
EC: What was the role of the Church Bleu?
KM: Church Bleu is a very valuable custom blue cheese created by Willa’s former employer, Max Dumas, who kept it shrouded in secrecy—no one knows how or where it’s made and aged. Max has recently passed away and Willa’s former colleagues, who also worked with Max, are each hoping to inherit the secrets to Church Bleu. When Max, instead, leaves them riddles to finding the secrets, it eventually leads to the murder of one of the cheesemongers. Willa realizes that she and Team Cheese must be the first to decipher the riddles in order to figure out who murdered her fellow cheesemonger.
EC: How would you describe her former co-worker Pepper?
KM: Snarky, straightforward, and bossy.
EC: How would you describe her former co-worker Claire?
KM: Claire is sweet and quiet, but once her friend is murdered, she begins to find her voice and speak up.
EC: How would you describe her former co-worker Kendall?
KM: In some ways, Kendall is like Willa—independent, a leader, and very good at her job. However, there’s more to Kendall than meets the eye.
EC: Was Hugo the prominent bad guy?
KM: I don’t think so. Just like everyone else, he has his reasons for wanting the Church Bleu.
EC: Can you compare the friends of Yarrow Glen to the friends in Oregon?
KM: Willa is much closer to her Yarrow Glen friends. That’s partially because she was emotionally ready to start making connections again after years of shutting people out because of her ex-fiance’s betrayal and her brother’s death. But it’s also because her Yarrow Glen friends showed their trust and loyalty to her almost immediately. Being framed for murder only weeks after opening her shop threw them together and forced her to get to know them and trust them more quickly than she might’ve otherwise. She never really allowed her former colleagues from Church Cheese to be any more than work friends, although she was closer to Kendall than the others.
EC: Where are you going with the relationship between Willa and Heath versus Roman?
KM: In the last book, Curds of Prey, we saw Willa and Roman’s relationship implode before it had a chance to become something serious. So in this book, we see how they’re navigating their new relationship and considering whether they ended their romance too soon. Willa’s relationship with Heath has been strengthening throughout each book, little by little, into something deeper. However, something occurs in Case of the Bleus, which changes things. I don’t want to say where these relationships are going—that’s for readers to find out in upcoming books.
EC: Are you a riddle person-did you make up the riddle clues-why the riddles?
KM: I’ve always enjoyed riddles and logic puzzles. Because this is my fourth book, I wanted to do something different than I’d done in the first three, so I did a mystery within a mystery. I thought it would be fun for the reader can try to solve the riddles along with Willa, and also try to solve the murder. I looked up some riddles online and then changed some things to fit what I needed them to be. It’s much harder to make up riddles than to try and solve them!
EC: Did you come up with “inn-formant”-pretty funny?
KM: Yes, I did! Thanks!
EC: Next book?
KM: Fondue or Die is Cheese Shop Mystery #5. It will be released in September 2024, so there’s time to catch up on my series. It takes place at the Dairy Days Festival in an adjacent town to Yarrow Glen. When a murder occurs in which Mrs. Schultz is involved, Willa is concerned her friend might be in danger. Detective Heath agrees, but this crime is outside his jurisdiction. For the first time, Heath puts his badge aside and teams up with Willa and her friends to investigate. As the festival events get underway, they’re left scrambling to connect the clues that will lead them to the culprit. There’s something sour behind the wholesome Dairy Days, and Willa and Team Cheese are determined to make sure the truth is spilled.
EC: THANK YOU!!
