Treble at the Jam Fest (A Food Lovers' Village Mystery #4)

Author:  Leslie Budewitz
Genre:   Mystery

Trade Paperback; [Audio CD]; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780738752402; [9781541459885]
Midnight Ink Publishing; [Tantor Audio]
288 Pages
$11.39; [$22.67]; $4.99 Amazon
June 8, 2017

⭐⭐⭐

Erin Murphy, manager of Glacier Mercantile (aka the Merc), is tuning up for Jewel Bay's annual Jazz Festival.  Between keeping the Merc's shelves stocked with Montana's tastiest local fare and hosting the festival's kick-off concert, Erin has her hands full.

Discord erupts when jazz guitarist Gerry Martin plummets to his death from the rocks above the Jewel River.  The one-time international sensation had fallen out of sync with festival organizers, students, and performers.  Was his death an accident -- or did someone even the score?

Erin investigates despite the warning signs not to get involved.  And when the killer attacks, she orchestrates her efforts into one last crescendo, hoping to avoid a deadly finale.

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Erin Murphy is manager of Glacier Mercantile in small-town Jewel Bay, Montana.  They're gearing up for a festival featuring guitarist Gerry Martin.  But all is not well -- especially when Erin hears arguments between Gerry and others who are either attending or performing in the concert he's about to give.

Also on hand is her boyfriend Adam's best friend Tanner, who has finally arrived from Minnesota to spend time visiting with Adam and Erin.  While she's looking for everything to settle down, that's not going to happen.  The day after the concert, she hears that there's been an accident on the river -- where Adam and Tanner are kayaking, and when she rushes to it, she sees Tanner on the rocks, obviously in distress.  She fears the worst, but those fears are allayed when Adam grabs her from behind before she can tumble to the ground.  But when she learns that the deceased is Gerry Martin, and Tanner tells her it wasn't an accident, she begins to wonder who hated him enough to kill him, or wants to see her stop asking questions...

While I really wanted to love this book, I just couldn't.  There were things that bothered me, and unfortunately, I just couldn't get past them.  First, how does she keep the Merc up and running when she's never there?  She's there long enough to go into her office to work on the investigation, or order a couple cases of wine, but then she's off again, leaving the place to Tracy and her new hiree, Lou Mary.  That grated on me.

Also unfortunately, I still just really hate the name Fresca.  it's the name of a soft drink from years ago, and every time I hear it I think she was named after it.  The nickname for Francesca would more likely be Fran.  It also bothers me that she calls her mother by her first name.  It's disrespectful, and who cares if your mother works at the same place you do?  You'd still call her mom, yet she even calls her Fresca in her mind.  (Yeah, I know, but it really bothered me).

Aside from this, the mystery was fine, and there were plenty of suspects who wanted Martin dead.  Finding the right one took time, since the clues that their were led to a woman being the murderer.  That narrowed it down somewhat, since the men were pretty much out of the picture.  In the end, it all came together satisfactorily, and left a hint of what is to come in the next book, which I will still probably read, since I've read all the books in this series so far.

https://www.amazon.com/Treble-Fest-Lovers-Village-Mystery/dp/0738752401/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1897475878

More on Leslie Budewitz's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/leslie-ann-budewitz/

Butter Off Dead (A Food Lovers' Village Mystery #3)

Author:  Leslie Budewitz
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Audio CD; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780425259566; 9781541402102
Berkley Publishing
287 Pages
$7.94; $21.09; $7.99 Amazon
July 7, 2015

✮✮✮

In an attempt to wood tourists to Jewel Bay and cheer up the townies, Erin Murphy, manager of the specialty local foods market known as the Merc, is organizing the First Annual Film Festival, filled with classic foodie flicks and local twists on favorite movie treats.  But when her partner in planning, painter Christine Vandeberg, is found dead only days before the curtain rises, Erin suspects someone is attempting to stop the films from rolling.

To make matters worse, Nick- Erin's brother and Christine's beau - has top billing on the suspect list.  Convinced her brother is innocent and determined that the show must go on, Erin has to find who's really to blame before Nick gets arrested or the festival gets shut down.  But the closer she gets to the killer, the more likely it becomes that she'll be the next person cut from the program...

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Erin Murphy is helping Christine Vandeburg with the First Annual Jewel Bay Film Festival for the locals.  Erin is going to meet Christine at her studio and finds Zayda George, a local high school girl involved with the festival, sitting on the steps, looking shocked.  When she finally enters the studio she finds Christine mortally injured by a gunshot, and calls the police.

But who killed Christine?  Zayda or her brother Nick, who said he was tracking wolves but instead was closer than he admitted?  When it looks as if Nick is the main suspect - it turns out he’s inherited everything Christine owned - then Erin knows she needs to find the true killer before her brother is wrongfully imprisoned.

But it doesn’t help that he won’t talk to anyone about where he’s been or what he’s been doing and that the only other suspect is teenaged Zayda.  So Erin takes it upon herself the to find a killer before a killer finds her....

This is the third book in the series, and as such, is a bit of an improvement over the first two, but I still wasn't very impressed.  The book was an easy read - I finished it in a few hours, but there are still things that bother me.  For one, the way Erin eats, she should weigh over 300 pounds by now.  She's always eating pasta and candy/cookies, etc.; and drinking - a lot.  Liquor adds calories.  Paninis are fattening.  Lattes.  I've never read that the woman ate a salad (sans dressing) to counter all the fattening food she eats.

I also still don't get why she calls her mom Fresca (not to mention it's the name of a soft drink and I can't help thinking about that every time she says the name).  I'm pretty sure everyone in town knows they're related, and who cares if the tourists don't?  WHAT is the big deal about using Fresca instead of just calling her mom?  I don't see it.  I also don't get why she needs to investigate murders.  She seems to think that she's more perceptive than the police.  I get the fact that cozies are about amateur sleuths, but Erin rather turns me off by insisting that she can't be with a man who won't let her poke around in murder investigations.  What man would be comfortable with his wife/girlfriend doing so if it put her life in danger? 

Anyway, the book was interesting, just not intriguing.  We do learn a little more about her brother in this book, and find out the answer to a question that's been plaguing the family for years.  All in all, a nice little cozy that's not too involved, and I will read the next in the series.

https://www.amazon.com/Butter-Dead-Lovers-Village-Mystery/dp/0425259560/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2317870530

More on Leslie Budewitz's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/leslie-ann-budewitz/

Crime Rib (A Food Lovers' Mystery #2)

Author:  Leslie Budewitz
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Audio CD; Digital Book; Audiobook
ISBN #:  978 0425259559; 9781541452091
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$7.98; $23.76; $5.99 Amazon
July 1, 2014

✭✭✭

Food Preneurs, one of the hottest cooking shows on TV, has decided to feature Jewel Bay, Montana in an upcoming episode, and everyone in town is preparing for their close-ups, including the crew at the Glacier Mercantile, aka the Merc.  Not only is Erin busy remodeling her courtyard into a relaxing dining area, she's organizing a steak-cooking competition between three of Jewel Bay's hottest chefs to be featured on the program.

But Erin's plans get scorched when one of the contending cooks is found dead.  With all the drama going on behind the scenes, it's hard to figure out who didn't have a motive to off the saucy contestant.  Now, to keep the town's reputation from crashing and burning on national television, Erin will have to grill some suspects to smoke out the killer...

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Erin Murphy is always looking for ways to bring people into Jewel Bay, Montana - and has found a TV crew willing to do a show centering on local chefs.  But there seems to be a problem when two of the chefs submit similar recipes.  So they are asked to re-submit recipes and everything seems to be going fine, that is until the producer of the show, Stacia Duval, is killed in a hit-and-run accident and Erin's the one to find her body.

But then things start not adding up, the first being why was Stacia out alone at night in heels walking in an unfamiliar area?  But it's not until one of the chefs is also killed that Erin realizes there's a murderer afoot and she needs to get involved, even if the local sheriff doesn't think she should.  These are her people, her friends, and she's not about to allow a killer run loose among them without trying to find him or her.  Even if it puts her right in the middle of the killer's line of sight...

I will say that I liked this book much better than the first.  Unfortunately, the first was so mish-mash that I just couldn't get into it at all.  This time out the plot is much better, although I still think that too much attention is paid to food.  Yes, I get that it's a "Food Lovers' Village Mystery" but it seems every other page is someone eating something.  Do we really care about someone making jam or huckleberry truffles?  If it's a cookbook I do, but not in a mystery novel.  Anyway...

The only other things that bothered me was the "whabouts" column (wouldn't it be easier just to use 'where' or even '?' - it would make more sense and 'whabout' isn't cute; and what on earth does 'get my jell-o up' mean?  Who says something like that?  I've never heard it before and have no idea.  It was annoying to say the least.  I also didn't guess how Erin could figure out things the police couldn't.  Her friend Kim seemed to have really nothing to do in this book, and neither did Kyle, Rick or Adam.  The big thing that grates on me is why she calls her mother by her first name.  Again, (as I've stated before) she's her mother.  She's not the first parent anyone has worked with.  Does she think by saying 'Mom' people will think she's at the Merc through nepotism?  It doesn't make sense at all.  Why would she even want to call her anything but Mom?

Other than that, it was an interesting read and I fairly enjoyed it; enough to go on to the third in the series.  When the ending came and everything was figured out it all made sense, which is a good thing, and I will read the next in the series.  An easy read for a cold evening.

https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Food-Lovers-Village-Mystery/dp/0425259552/ 

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2313091603

More on Leslie Budewitz's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/leslie-ann-budewitz/-

As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles (A Food Lovers' Village Mystery #5)

Author:  Leslie Budewitz
Genre:  Mystery

Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780738752419
Midnight Ink Publishing
288 Pages
$15.99; $11.99 Amazon
June 8, 2018

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In Jewel Bay, all is merry and bright.  At Murphy's Mercantile, AKA the Merc, manager Erin Murphy is ringing in the holiday season with food, drink, and a new friend: Merrily Thornton.  A local girl gone wrong, Merrily's turned her life around.  But her parents have publicly shunned her, and they nurse a bitterness that chills Erin.

When Merrily goes missing and her boss discovers he's been robbed, fingers point to Merrily - until she's found dead, a string of lights around her neck.  The clues and danger snowball from there.  Can Erin nab the killer - and keep herself in one piece - in time for a special Christmas Eve?

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When Erin Murphy is outside the Mercantile stringing Christmas lights, she decides to look at the Thornton's shop window.  Every year, they have the most amazing display, and this year is no different...except that their daughter Merrily has arrived in town, and with no welcome from her parents.  When she hears the conversation - Merrily's mother Taya is berating her and telling her to leave, Erin takes pity and invites her into the Merc.  After commiserating with her and feeling sorry for Merrily, she invites her to the cookie exchange she's having that Sunday.

It seems Merrily spent time in prison for embezzlement when she was only a teenager, and most people think she got taken advantage of by the true embezzler; yet her parents haven't forgiven her, and it doesn't look like they ever will.  But when Merrily doesn't show up for the cookie exchange, Erin is concerned until she receives a phone call from Greg Taylor - and it doesn't bode well.

Greg hired Merrily to work for him as a bookkeeper, but when he discovered missing money and she didn't show up for work he went looking for her - and found her, dead - with a string of Christmas lights around her neck.  He called Erin because she'd been through this before.  But Erin can't figure out what Merrily could have done to get herself killed - she doesn't believe she stole from Greg's hardware store, since there's no real evidence; but there doesn't seem to be any other explanation.

It seems Greg is the main suspect, and his sister Wendy asks Erin to investigate since she thinks the police will arrest him for the crime.  So Erin tells her she'll think about it - and that she does, discovering things along the way that don't make any sense.  Where is the missing money?  Merrily wasn't living high, and Erin discovers evidence that shows she didn't leave her home of her own free will.  But finding the truth could take some time - time Erin doesn't have with her wedding day nearing, and she might not make it anyway if someone else has their way...

I enjoyed reading this book, the fifth in the series.  This time around, Erin is getting ready for her Christmas wedding to Adam when the tragedy of murder occurs.  Although she's not a friend of Merrily, who was years ahead of her in school, she still knows the family and hears the history of why Merrily left.  But the woman looked so bereft that Erin knew she had to reach out to her, and when she didn't show for the exchange, Erin was concerned.

What follows is a maze of clues all leading in one direction, but that direction isn't easy to find.  You have to sift through them (they are there) before you find the truth.  And the truth isn't an easy pill to swallow.  It makes one wonder how there are people who can go through this life seemingly caring for others, but in reality are a different type of human being altogether.

In the end, it was a very good mystery and put together well, and I enjoyed reading it.  Although it takes place at Christmas, I believe that it can be read any time of the year, and can also be read as a stand alone.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Cookie-Crumbles-Village-Mystery-ebook/dp/B075W25FNF/

Goodreads:

More on Leslie Budewitz's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/leslie-ann-budewitz/

Death al Dente (A Food Lovers' Village Mystery 31)

Author:  Leslie Budewitz
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperbook; Audio CD; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780425259542; 9781541452084
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$7.99; $21.80; $2.99 Amazon
August 6, 2013

✮✮

The town of Jewel Bay, Montana - known as a Food Lovers' Village - is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare.  So when Erin Murphy takes over her family's century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies.  But Erin's freshly booming business might go rotten when a former employee turns up dead...

Murphy's Mercantile, known as the Merc, has been a staple in Jewel Bay for over a hundred years.  To celebrate their recent makeover as a gourmet food market, Erin has organized a town festival, Festa di Pasta, featuring the culinary goods of Jewel Bay's finest - including her mother Fresca's delicious Italian specialties.

But Erin's sweet success is soured when the shop's former manager, Claudette, is found dead behind the Merc on the Festa's opening night.  With rival chef James Angelo stirring up rumors that Fresca's sauce recipes were stolen from Claudette, Erin's mother is under close scrutiny.  Now Erin will have to hunt down some new suspects, or both her family and her store might wind up in hot water...

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Erin Murphy has returned home to Montana after many years away to help run her family business, Murphy's Mercantile.  She's decided that the way to go to make it profitable is to carry items made in Montana, including her mother's own Italian recipes.

But first her mother is accused of stealing the recipes of an old friend, Claudette, who has hightailed it to Las Vegas with a local chiropractor; and even though Fresca (her mother) denies it, there are still rumors.  Then, when Claudette suddenly returns - and is found dead behind the mercantile - the rumors are getting serious.  Suddenly Fresca is the main suspect and Erin decides the only way to clear her mother (who refuses any help) is to find the killer herself.  But will her investigation do more harm than good?

I honestly really wanted to like this book, and I tried...but I kept falling asleep every time I picked it up.  I'm not sure why; usually I have no problem reading books straight through, and even managing to read one a day.  But this one...

The characters were boring.  The dialogue was boring.  We never get to know anything at all about Claudette; there is only one small conversation between Erin and her where she tells Erin the rumors are false and how she found out the chiropractor was never in love with her.  Then...she's dead.  So we never get to engage with her at all - even though everyone says that she was wonderful, all I got to see was a crying, near-hysterical woman over a broken short-lived affair. 

The detective in charge of the case is an old ex-friend of Erin's, and honestly, I finished the book because I wanted to see why they'd drifted apart after Erin's father's death, and it was a letdown.  Also, I didn't understand why she felt the need to call her mother by her first name.  Didn't she want customers to know they were related?  Was she afraid of being accused of nepotism?  It didn't make any sense.  Many, many people work with their parents and call them Mom or Dad.  It seemed ridiculous.  If she wanted customers to know who created the recipes, just have the woman wear a name tag or something.  Don't call your mother by her first name at work and then 'mom' at home.  Good grief.

I think part of the problem is Erin is self-centered.  She seems a bit snobbish, and so does her sister, Chiara.  Also, there's just Too Much Detail about things that aren't important to the reader.  It's hard to actually place, but the dialogue for one could be a little more interesting.  (And honestly, who's going to join a Jam Club?)

In the end, the reason for the murder didn't really make any sense to me, so that's part of the reason the book fell flat.  As it is, I always try to give the author a pass on the first in a new series, and I will read the next in the hope that it will improve.

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Al-Dente-Village-Mystery/dp/0425259544/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2309424955

More on Leslie Budewitz's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/leslie-ann-budewitz/