ThirtyishVal Deniston loves the Chesapeake Bay tourist town shenow calls home. Running the fitness club’s Cool Down Café–and perfectingher five-ingredient recipes–is a dream come true. But keeping her grandfatherout of trouble can be a challenge…
Especially when one of his dinner party guestswinds up face down in the chowder. The deceased diner apparently scammedGranddad’s best buddy, and … chowder. The deceased diner apparently scammed
Granddad’s best buddy, and since the other dinner guests have suddenly clammed
up, the police have all the ingredients to cook up a conviction for Granddad.
With his freedom–and Val’s café job–on the line, Val is in a sweat trying to
avert disaster. But dredging up old secrets might just be a recipe for murder…
Includes 6 five-ingredient recipes!
more
Romantic mysteries are a guilty pleasure at times and this one ticked all the boxes: a woman moves back home to reinvent herself after a serious relationship ends and opens a business. Her grandfather, with whom she lives, may be slipping a bit mentally. He writes a column of Five Ingredient Recipes which *she* invents, but Granddad claims the credit.
Grandfather holds a dinner party which not all guests survive leading to the questions: Was it poison? Was it food poisoning? What happened? An easy read, by which I mean it’s not serious literature but we all need a bon-bon once in a while.
Most of the characters are well developed although the restaurant sabotage is a but clumsy. You may figure out who is the killer. Or not.
I lived in Virginia for a decade and visited the Chesapeake Bay area often. This was a nice reminder of its beauty and charm. Well, except for the murderer(s).
Bon appetit!
I enjoyed all the books in the series, but sometimes it takes too long to get from Point A to Point B.
It was annoying. Not sure why I finished it, other than it’s hard for me to *not* finish a book! Ugh!
Always love that recipes are given. Some are awesome some aresoso
Book two in the Five-Ingredient Mystery series. Val has gotten quite comfortable living with her Granddad by this point. She is even helping him pretend to cook for a dinner party. All goes well until one of the guest becomes ill succumbing to food poisoning after a few short days. Everyone at the dinner is now a suspect so of course Val has to look into things as best she can. She brings up some old secrets in her search for the truth that puts her in danger since the killer would prefer that this not be known. The development is smooth and the characters keep it all interesting. Grandad cracks me up but Val seems to be able to handle him quite nicely. This is a cute cozy mystery and I give it 4/5 stars.
Val Deniston’s grandfather is hosting a dinner party with a secret agenda. He’s hoping to confront Scott, a man who scams retirees out of their savings. However, before the confrontation can take place, Scott gets sick and leaves. The next day he is dead from poison. With the other dinner guests as suspects, Val must figure out what happened before the police arrest her grandfather.
The mystery in this book is very strong. I thought I could discount some of the suspects early on, but by the end, I felt they all could have done it. Yet, when the killer was revealed, it made perfect sense with clues pointing to his or her identity. I do wish that Val’s grandfather wasn’t so harsh to her, but the rest of the characters and their relationships are strong, and I’m anxious to see what happens to them next.