Title:	The Fruitcake
	Author:	Leah Orr
	Published:	October 31, 2023,Orrplace Press
	No. of Pages:	368
	Cover Price:	$19.99 Hardcover, $14.99 Paperback

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Anyone interested in reading a very unique thriller will want to pick up The Fruitcake, by Leah Orr. The story, about four friends who live in a luxurious, high-end cul de sac, decide to continue a tradition started by Patty, who died when eating a fruitcake. Each year one of the neighbors would deliver a fruitcake to another neighbor. Unfortunately, the recipient of the fruitcake each year has a terrible accident, but they still carry on. There is a subplot where one of the homes is inhabited by the Hudson sisters, who aren’t friendly and keep to themselves. When the protagonist, Holly, delivers a fruitcake to them, she sees a murder take place through the front door. There are strange goings on at the Hudson house.

The writing is a bit amateurish, when compared to some of the bestselling authors of the day, it is readable. Each chapter jumps around from character to character with no apparent pattern, and there is a lot of time spent on the history of the Hudson family without equal time spent on the other characters. Some of the information on the Hudson family insinuates that all people from Utah are involved in a cult of polygamists, which isn’t true and Orr would do herself a favor to include facts that aren’t misleading. The development of the characters other than the Hudsons is a bit lacking, and the main and supporting characters come off as quite shallow. While there is some suspense, the ending is not a surprise.

All told, in spite of the less than spectacular writing and characterizations, the novel is interesting and one that is so unique that it is worth reading, if for no other reason that there are fun fruitcake facts and recipes at the end of the novel. Readers will want to start an annual fruitcake exchange of their own, since the Hudson sisters aren’t their neighbors.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.