The Agatha Award–winning author of Sifting Through Clues returns to the Cookbook Nook, where a combative food reporter gets her just deserts . . .
The denizens of Crystal Cove are salivating over the upcoming Food Bowl Week, when local chefs offer some of their best and most imaginative creations in bite-size portions all over town. Bookstore proprietor Jenna Hart is hungry to sample as many of … is hungry to sample as many of the delicacies as she can, but when she stumbles onto the dead body of a local food reporter and learns that her best friend’s husband is the primary suspect, she’ll have to summon the appetite for a side dish of sleuthing to prove his innocence.
Jenna knows the ambitious and aggressive reporter, who was strangled at a fitness center with her shredded restaurant reviews scattered around her, left behind a long list of potential suspects. As she begins piecing together the scant clues, she uncovers illicit ties between the victim and a local newspaper owner, a spurned would-be lover, and a host of disgruntled restaurant owners not a bit torn up by the critical reporter’s demise. And with a solution so close she can almost taste it, Jenna turns up the heat on the culprit, realizing too late that she’s the next course on the murderer’s menu . . .
Includes tasty recipes!
Praise for Daryl Wood Gerber and the Cookbook Nook Mysteries:
“There’s a feisty new amateur sleuth in town and her name is Jenna Hart. With a bodacious cast of characters, a wrenching murder, and a collection of cookbooks to die for, Daryl Wood Gerber’s Final Sentence is a page-turning puzzler of a mystery that I could not put down.” —Jenn McKinlay, New York Times bestselling author of the Cupcake Mysteries and Library Lovers Mysteries
“In Final Sentence, the author smartly blends crime, recipes, and an array of cookbooks that all should covet in a witty, well-plotted whodunit.” —Kate Carlisle, New York Times bestselling author of the Bibliophile Mysteries
“Readers will relish the extensive cookbook suggestions, the cooking primer, and the whole foodie phenomenon. Gerber’s perky tone with a multigenerational cast makes this series a good match for Lorna Barrett’s Booktown Mystery series . . .” —Library Journal
“So pull out your cowboy boots and settle in for a delightful read. Grilling the Subject is a delicious new mystery that will leave you hungry for more.” —Carstairs Considers Blog
About the Author:
Agatha Award–winning and nationally bestselling author Daryl Wood Gerber is the author of the Cookbook Nook Mysteries, the French Bistro Mysteries, the Cheese Shop Mysteries (as Avery Aames), and stand-alone suspense thrillers. Little known facts about Daryl are that she’s jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, has hitchhiked around Ireland by herself, and has appeared on an episode of Murder, She Wrote. She loves to read, cook, and golf, and has a frisky Goldendoodle named Sparky who keeps her in line!
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I wish I could live in a town like Crystal Cove. Small town, mostly lovely people and always good food. A killer here and there, well Jenna Hart will figure out who dunnit and all will be fine….until the next book, of course. Here we are in crime #9 and a totally obnoxious food critic is making things miserable around town. Kylie O really knows how to rub people the wrong way but, somehow, until now, she has had job security with the local newspaper. Things get very heated when she goes toe to toe and nose to nose with another reporter, claiming that she has the exclusive rights to every article that concerns food. Period. Poor Tito, he has crossed paths with a vengeful woman and her hidden past. Next thing he knows, he is the prime suspect in Kylie O’s demise. Somebody couldn’t take it anymore and did her in, stringing her up on a Pilates machine like a rag doll and scattering papers all over the place, copies of her food reviews. Was it her present that killed her or was it her past that came back?
Jenna may have lots on her plate right now with the cook book store, the Food Bowl Week, her plans for her upcoming wedding to Rhett but when she is on the scene with her friend Bailey (who happens to be Tito’s wife) to discover the corpse….of course she is going to start her own investigation. These are her friends and nothing will stop her from tracking down the killer.
As in every cozy the main character sticks her nose into police business, the police tell her to stay out of it – we readers know the rules and it’s what keeps us coming back. I like Jenna and her group of family and friends. Each helps unravel the mystery in some way and the killer is uncovered. The mark of a good series is that none of it is stale in the ninth book. I’m ready for more investigations with Jenna.
My thanks to the publisher Beyond the Page and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.
Crystal Cove, a small coastal community is the backdrop for the nineth installment in the Cookbook Nook Mysteries. Although I have missed several books in this series, I was able to catch up quickly with the cast of characters and their lives which I appreciated. Jenna, our protagonist, as well as her Aunt Vera, owns the Cookbook Nook, a culinary bookstore, and also the Nook Café. “Shredding the Evidence” takes place during Crystal Cove’s Food Bowl, a highly anticipated event featuring several restaurants and one of their own celebrity chefs. The Food Bowl is event I would love to participate in given the wonderful descriptions of the selections offered. Having a few recipes at the end of the book is always a plus. When one of the reporters covering the event is murdered, there is no shortage of suspects. Every time I thought I knew who it was, I as wrong! When the killer is revealed at the end, I was completely caught off guard. This is an entertaining mystery, and I look forward to once again being able to walk the streets of Crystal Cove in the next installment.
I received this complimentary book as a gift and the thoughts and opinions are my own.