Author: Mindy Quigley
Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book (LP and Audiobook Available)
ISBN #: 9781250792471
St. Martin's Books
320 Pages
$8.99; $8.99 Amazon
December 26, 2023
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While Geneva Bay's upper crust gets ready to party down at a Prohibition-themed fundraiser, pizza chef Delilah O'Leary is focused on seeing her struggling restaurant through the winter slow season. The temperature outside is plummeting, but Delilah's love life might finally be heating up, as hunky detective Calvin Capone seems poised to (finally) make a move.
But Delilah's hopes of perfecting a new "free-from" pizza recipe for a charity bash are dashed when a dead body crashes the party. Soon, Capone, Delilah, and her entire staff are trapped in an isolated mansion and embroiled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
To catch an increasingly desperate killer, Delilah will have to top all of her previous crime-solving accomplishments, and a few pizzas, too.
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Delilah O'Leary owns an Italian restaurant in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin. On the night of a fundraising bash for the library, she is tasked with not only her pizzas, but creating a new "free-from" pizza for one of the guests who is allergic to almost everything. already nervous about the party because she is hoping to get new customers, this one is a challenge. But before the meal can be served, one of the guests tumbles down the stairs to their death -- and with detective Calvin Capone attending, it's eventually ruled a murder.
But since everyone is snowed in at the mansion, who is the killer? Is it one of the guests or one of Delilah's staff? She intends to finds out, even if Capone wants her to leave it alone...and so does the murderer....
This is the third book in the series and I really wanted to like it. It's a decent mystery, but I liked the first two much better. This one seems to drag on and on, never really going anywhere until close to the end. We don't learn much about the attendees, and if you haven't read the first two books, then you are given snippets here and there of Delilah's staff. What we are given ad nauseum, is Delilah's hots for Capone. Over and over. The entire book is filled with Delilah lusting after our detective, and he seemingly oblivious to it. (Well, why shouldn't he be concerned with the murder first? Of course). It's in every page. Constantly. This book is more of a romance/mystery instead of a mystery/romance. I don't mind romance in my cozies (after all, it's part of the book) but she is practically drooling every time she comes near him. Down, girl!
Other than that, the mystery was done very well. I really didn't guess the reason for the murder until close to the end, and I did think the way it was wrapped up was done nicely indeed. Ms. Quigley is a talented writer, and I do hope that in the next in the series we can get back to the mystery first instead of second. A very nice cozy to read on a winter night -- and you don't have to read the first two to enjoy this one.
I was given a copy of this book from the publisher but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Mindy Quigley's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/q/mindy-quigley/
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