Sherry Oliveri has attained celebrity status after winning the America’s Good Taste Recipe Contest with her delectable New England Crab Cake Sliders. But now that she’s back home in Connecticut, she’s got to deal with something else fishy . . . Sherry’s making a guest appearance on a local radio show when the news comes in: Poppy Robinson has been found dead in the town’s community garden. Sherry … garden. Sherry was supposed to be taking questions about her win in the national cooking competition, but instead the callers start dishing dirt.
Poppy and Sherry were both involved in the vegetable garden, and while Poppy may have been a bit priggish, it wasn’t anything that called for a shovel to the back of the head. There was already trouble brewing, with the owner of the land threatening to renege on their agreement, and this murder has taken tensions to a new level. Now while Sherry’s organizing a Fourth of July cook-off event, she’s also got a murder investigation on her plate . . .
Includes Recipes from Sherry’s Kitchen!
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*I received a free copy of this book which I voluntarily chose to write an honest review for.
Sherry is on her way home after a successful cookoff with no murder involved as the big winner. Her name is well known now making the flight interesting but that was only the beginning of the chaos to come. Once home there is lots of gossiping about the community gardens that leads to the death of the woman running it. Sherry has no intention of getting involved but others request it anyways. This leads to a merry adventure of her living her hectic life while stumbling across clues. I must say the ending was a nice surprise twist. A great mystery full of quirky characters and mouth watering food that will keep you hooked until the very end. Perfect for fans of culinary themed cozies. I really liked it so I give it 4/5 stars
While Guilty as Charred is the third installment in A Cook-Off Mystery series, it can be read alone. What has happened to Sherry in the first two books is summarized for new readers. Guilty as Charred is nicely written, has a good flow, and proceeds at a steady pace. Sherry Olivieri enjoys cooking and comes up with creative recipes for the amateur cook-off contests she enters. After winning America’s Good Taste Cook-off, Sherry is the town’s local celebrity. Augustin decides to take advantage of Sherry’s fame by having her organize a cook-off for Augustin’s Fourth of July celebration. They are hoping to attract more tourists to Augustin. Then Poppy Robinson is found dead in the Augustin’s Community Garden and Sherry is asked to quickly solve the case by various parties. There are multiple suspects along with a red herring or two. There are good clues to aid reads in solving the crime. The whodunit was multifaceted, and Sherry had to do a little digging to find the information she needed. There were some deadly threats and one was very unique. I wish it had been more of a challenge identifying the guilty party. Detective Ray Bease has a shadow in the form of Detective Cody Diamond. Detective Bease is forced to learn how to use a tablet and give up his ever ready paper pad. I was left with a couple of unanswered questions regarding the mystery at the end of the book. I prefer it when everything is wrapped up neatly to satisfy my curiosity. Sherry whips up some delicious dishes and needs to come up with a bacon focused recipe for an upcoming contest. She is also busy working at the Ruggery, taking care on the town’s newsletter, cataloguing seeds that are being mailed to her for use communal garden, planning the Fourth of July cook-off (patties are the theme), spending time with her friends, and going on dates with a new fellow. Guilty as Charred has appetizing cuisine, a technologically challenged detective, a panicked populace, toxic threats, a canine named Chutney, and one prying protagonist.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Sherry Oliveri is back with a major win under her belt and another murder to solve. She won the America’s Good Taste Recipe Contest beating out cooks from the other 49 states. While talking about her win for a local radio station breaking news informs listeners that Poppy Robinson has been killed and that her body was found at Augustin’s community garden. Poppy and her family owned the land the community garden was on, she was on its board and ruled with an iron fist. She was also running for mayor.
The current mayor thought a 4th of July cookoff would be a great way to bring tourists to town and thought Sherry would be the perfect person to organize it. He also wants the murder case wrapped up asap! So Sherri is planning a cookoff, preparing for her next cooking contest, working with her dad at the Ruggery and has now added catching a killer to her already long to-do-list. She is going to need the perfect recipe to solve the murder and get on with her life. Hopefully, she can save the community garden too.
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Protag Sherry Oliveri continues to grow and evolve as do all her relationships with a great cast of core characters. I continue to admire her relationship with her father. Detective Ray Bease also returns and tries to keep her out of his investigation but we all know that is not going to happen. I love when her sister comes to visit and the friendship she has built with Amber.
Ms. Delaney has cooked up quite a mystery this time complete with the red herrings cozy readers love. Twists, turns, surprises fill the pages. Sherri now has a reputation for solving murder mysteries and so many people were pressing her for answers. The deceased had an off-putting demeanor but was that enough for someone to want her dead?
I enjoyed the way Sherri handled her investigation, she really didn’t know Poppy well, but the killer is on her tail so she must be on the right track. Her current challenge is to live through her investigation. I must have totally missed a major clue because the killer reveal caught me off-guard.
I was very entertained by this great story. It was well-written and plotted which was key because there were several subplots that all needed to come together at the end. I will say all of Sherry’s activity exhausted me. But her recipes though delighted me. I hope she gets a few months off before the next case comes along. She needs to recharge her batteries and have time for doing what she loves, finding the perfect recipe to win another challenge.
Who killed Poppy and why?
Guilty as Charred by Devon Delaney is a delightful mystery with wonderful characters and a lovely small town setting. It has food, murder, and everything that leads us to a great whodunit.
Sherry Oliveri
Sherry is the winner of a few cooking competition; she also helps her dad run his rug store, plays tennis, edits the town’s newsletter and now is helping to organize the cook-off for the town’s Fourth of July celebration. She is a really busy person. Yet, Sherry is searching for the Poppy Robinson’s murderer. Sherry is an unlikely sleuth, but she loves puzzles much like recipes, and she tries to figure it out.
Things to look for (and that I liked)
• Sherry’s family is close even though her sister doesn’t live in town.
• This small Connecticut town is full of secrets and gossips.
• The community has that small town community flavor.
• The idea of the community garden is a fabulous idea that benefits not only those who have garden beds but also the local food bank and the younger generation that learn to grow plants.
• The friendship between Amber and Sherry.
4 Stars for Guilty as Charred by Devon Delaney
My rating for Guilty as Charred by Devon Delaney is four stars. I enjoyed the story, characters, and the details about cooking competitions and making of the rugs. You will have to follow the clues because I didn’t figure it out until Sherry did.
Don’t forget to check out the recipes at the end of the book. I also loved the cover, and you know how much a cover snob I can be.
I highly recommend this book to all Cozy readers.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Great Escapes Book Tours. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Guilty as Charred by Devon Delaney.
Anyways, until next time,
Karen the Baroness
Happy Reading
If you would like to see other reviews like this one, check out BaronessBookTrove.com.
Guilty as Charred is the 3rd installment in A Cook-Off Mystery series by Devon Delaney. Even though I haven’t read the previous books in this series, it didn’t cause a problem as this can be read as a stand-alone but I recommend reading the others first.
Sherry Oliveri has attained celebrity status after winning the America’s Good Taste Recipe Contest with her delectable New England Crab Cake Sliders. But now that she’s back home in Connecticut, she’s got to deal with something else fishy . . .
Sherry’s making a guest appearance on a local radio show when the news comes in: Poppy Robinson has been found dead in the town’s community garden. Sherry was supposed to be taking questions about her win in the national cooking competition, but instead the callers start dishing dirt.
Poppy and Sherry were both involved in the vegetable garden, and while Poppy may have been a bit priggish, it wasn’t anything that called for a shovel to the back of the head. There was already trouble brewing, with the owner of the land threatening to renege on their agreement, and this murder has taken tensions to a new level. Now while Sherry’s organizing a Fourth of July cook-off event, she’s also got a murder investigation on her plate . . .
Includes Recipes from Sherry’s Kitchen, but not ones from the story which was disappointing.
The protagonist Sherry is a strong woman, and the other characters are interesting. There are twists and turns, a few red herrings but I guessed whodunnit fairly soon in the story. The story moves at a steady pace but I did have trouble getting into the story.
I requested and received an Advanced Reader Copy from Kensington Books and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
cozy-mystery, cooking, recipes, amateur-sleuth, murder
Cooking contests, recipes, small town, community gardens, and murder, what’s not to like? Everyone in town expects contest celebrity Sherry to solve the murder of an irritating woman found in the community garden. How she goes about it and who she calls on for help makes this an interesting read.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley.