Cinco de Murder

Many thanks to the Cozy Mystery Group, Berkley Books, and the author for providing me a ARC of Cinco De Murder, the third book in the Taste of Texas cozy mystery series, written by Rebecca Adler, and published in May 2018. I normally read a series in order, but I won this one in a contest and didn’t have time to go back to the beginning.

This is your basic, good cozy mystery with several strengths and a few areas that needed some attention. The setting, characters and mystery were all interesting and built a world that has lots of potential. There were many suspects. The clues were dropped throughout the story. And the main character, Josie, really doesn’t investigate anything on her own. She mentions some things to the cops, then falls into a trap near the end when she unintentionally discovers the killer. I like the introduction of the chili cook off, the restaurant backdrop, and her potential love interests. For those reasons, it’s a good book.

Perhaps I was at a disadvantage by not having read the earlier two books, but I didn’t feel a strong connection to any of the characters as much as I would have liked to. I also felt the ending left us with some confusion on if the killer was caught or let go. All in all, I think this may have needed one more review / edit round to make it pop a bit more, then it would be a solid 4 rating. I would give the series a chance and read more, but I would also not rush to grab it when it first came out.

The highlights for me were a non-traditional main character / family in a setting I haven’t seen before in a cozy, as well as a fun flavor and spice in the language, description, and voice given the characters run a restaurant that isn’t your typical cozy setting. But I am hungry for some chili now, too!

Synopsis:

Tex-Mex waitress and part-time reporter Josie Callahan serves up more Lone Star justice in this spicy mystery from the author of The Good, the Bad, and the Guacamole.

It’s fiesta time in Broken Boot, Texas, and tourists are pouring into town faster than free beer at a bull roping for the mouthwatering Cinco de Mayo festivities. Tex-Mex waitress Josie Callahan, her feisty abuela, and even her spunky Chihuahua Lenny are polishing their folklorico dances for Saturday’s big parade, while Uncle Eddie is adding his own spicy event to the fiesta menu: Broken Boot’s First Annual Charity Chili Cook-off.

But Uncle Eddie’s hopes of impressing the town council go up in smoke when cantankerous chili cook Lucky Straw is found dead in his tent. And when Josie’s beloved uncle is accused of fatal negligence, she, Lenny, and the steadfast Detective Lightfoot must uncover who ended the ambitious chilihead’s life–before another cook kicks the bucket. (Goodreads)

Review:

The characters are well developed and well rounded. Josie is a smart caring person who has a feisty personality. She is surrounded by family and loved ones and she loves them as much as they love her. Maybe it is the reporter in her, but Josie has never met a mystery that she did not want to solve. And when her uncle is a person of interest, she becomes determined to find the real culprit. There were quite a few characters in this book and at times I had a hard time keeping them straight in my mind. This is only my opinion and others may not agree with me. Since this is the first book in the series that I have read, I would imagine it would have been easier if I had read the others. I really liked the feeling of familial love, caring and support that the author brought to all of the pages in this book. And her dog, Lenny, is just adorable.

The writing style flows smoothly and the book is an easy read. The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and through much of the book I felt like I was right there, watching all of the action taking place and listening in on conversations. The mystery was carried on well throughout the book and there were enough suspects to consider and clues to sift through. There was enough action taking place that I happily kept swiping pages to see what would happen next.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. I think for optimum enjoyment you want to read the other books in this series first, but again, that is only my opinion. I plan on reading the first two soon.

I received a free copy of this book from the author and the Cozy Mystery Review Crew in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank both for the opportunity to read and review this book.

What a fun book thanks to Lenny the dancing chihuahua. Not only can he dance but he has his own blog. The main character is Lenny’s owner, Josie Callahan. She keeps herself busy writing for the local newspaper, working in her uncle’s Tex-Mex restaurant and finding dead bodies. This time she finds a body in the wee hours of the morning while checking to see if everything is ready for Broken Boot’s First Annual Charity Chili Cook-Off. It appears that a cantankerous cook has died from a heart attack … or did he?

This story had a lot of likeable characters and I really liked the original settings of a chili cook-off and parade. On the down side, there were a lot of characters introduced in the beginning and it was hard to keep track of everyone. Since this was the first book that I have read in the series it made it a bit overwhelming.

I received this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It’s Cinco de Mayo and in Broken Boot, Texas Josie has agreed to help her Uncle Eddie with Broken Boot’s First Annual Charity Chili Cook-off. Uncle Eddie is desperate to make a good impression with the City Council with this event and he needs it go off without a hitch. Sadly, things don’t go in his favor when one of the contestants, a crotchy man by the name of, Lucky Straw, ends up dead. While checking the grounds to make sure nobody was trying to get in an unfair advantage Josie is the one who stumbles upon the unfortunate Lucky. I guess one could say that either he wasn’t so lucky or that his luck ran out. Things don’t look good for the cook-off continuing, but when Josie’s Uncle is accused of possibly being negligent of his duties she’s determined to figure out what really happened and why. She’ll have her hands more than full though with the Cinco de Mayo celebrations going on. She’s already committed to dancing in the parade with her folklorico troupe, she’s waitressing at the family restaurant and she’s trying to make time to write her article for the paper. Will she be able to balance it all? Vindicate her Uncle, discover what really happened and stay out of trouble? You’ll just have to read to find out.
Cinco de Murder by Rebecca Adler is book three in her A Taste of Texas Mystery series. This is the first book that I have read by this author. When I first saw the cover for this book I was excited to read it. I was curious to see what trouble Josie was going to get into. While this book can be read as a standalone novel, I think that it will benefit new readers more to start at the beginning. The way that the author writes, it seems that the characters are pretty established for her overall, and so we don’t get a lot of background on them. We get hints and clues at things that have happened in the past, but the author never really goes back and fills in for new readers. I like the humorous moments that the author writes the story. I feel that in the right places it helps to lighten the story up a bit. Josie has some engaging moments, but they aren’t as often as I would like. There are moments of where Josie seems like a good strong female character, but then she devolves in others to be a bit simple to me. I like the little hints of romance that the author writes into the story. It’s well done, and I like that a little flame seems to still be kindled between her and an old flame. As for the mystery element to this story, I have to say that I enjoyed that the most. I love a good mystery novel of where the author keeps me trying to figure out who the murderer is. For a time or two, I thought that I had it figured out but the author managed to surprise me in the end.
I wanted to enjoy this story more, but since I feel like I was missing out on a lot of history between the characters I just couldn’t. I wanted to know more about her and Ryan. She’s still carrying a bit of a torch for him, but she also has mixed feelings toward him as well. I’m curious as to what all has been transpiring between her and Lightfoot as well. At the pace that the story goes, one would think that quite a bit of time has passed, but everything transpires within a couple of days. Also, the author leaves us with some unanswered questions. I really don’t like it when this happens. Certain things are incorporated in the story, but the author never comes back and identifies what really transpired.
All in all, I’m rating this book 4 out of 5 stars. For just diving into the series, the characters come off a bit flat to me, and the story isn’t as engaging as I would have liked. The mystery element is there, but there are certain situations that are left unresolved. I like that we get some romance and the promise of more between two characters. This is a good book, but I recommend to readers that if you haven’t read the first in this series that you do so. That way maybe the characters will have more depth and you’ll know more about what is going on.

CINCO DE MURDER is seasoned with the same intelligent writing as the two previous installments of this wonderful series.

Author Rebecca Adler has reminded me why I wanted to return to Broken Boot, Texas. The wonderful characters, including longhaired Chihuahua, Lenny, the festive feel of the town, and the mouthwatering food are all just as I remembered. I swear I could smell delicious Tex-Mex the moment I opened the book.

Adler has blended together the prefect ingredients to ensure CINCO DE MURDER contains just the right amount of mystery, fun, and intrigue. With a plot full of twists and turns, this tasty murder mystery will leave you feeling sated at the satisfying conclusion but will quickly have you hungering for more of the series.

Make sure to check out the back for the book for yummy recipes!

It’s Cinco de Mayo weekend, and Josie Callahan has a full plate. She will be waitressing at her family’s Tex-Mex restaurant as well as helping her uncle with the first annual chili cook-off and dancing in the parade. The last thing she needs is to find the body of Lucky Straw, one of the cook-off contestants. He wasn’t well liked, but who would kill him?

This is a fun mystery tying into a different holiday, yet it fits the theme of this series perfectly. The mystery is good, with several elements to keep us guessing until the end. I did feel that the book needed another edit to smooth things over as Josie’s changing theories constantly confused me, but not in a good way for a mystery. The series regulars are as fun as always, especially Josie’s abuela.