a taste of murder
Now that Delilah O’Leary has her deep-dish pizza place up and running, she has to face the reality of owning a restaurant in a vacation town. They are doing okay, but Delilah wants to make sure she can keep up with her employee salaries during the slow season. To that end, she is trying to perfect her deep dish pretzel crust bratwurst pizza with beer-cheese sauce to enter into the local Taste of Wisconsin Cook-Off. The prize is a big write-up in the local magazine as well as other excellent publicity and $10,000 cash. Delilah knows that would help them through the long winter in Geneva Bay.
As she’s trying to perfect the recipe, inflicting bratwurst after bratwurst on her sous chef Sonya, Delilah is also juggling her feisty great-aunt, a revolving door of servers, an overly solicitous head of the Visitor’s Bureau, a celebrity chef with a history, and shared custody of her beloved orange cat Butterball with her ex-fiancé Sam. When Delilah realizes she’s late for Butterball’s drop-off because of her bratwurst obsession, she offers to bring the cat to where Sam is. And where Sam is, is the new hippie juice bar, Juice Revolution.
When Delilah and Butterball show up, she meets the owner of the juice bar, Jordan Watts. As Delilah apologizes to Sam for being late, she starts to realize that it’s not a coincidence that Sam chose this place to spend his time. He’s moved on. He and Jordan are now a couple. And just as this is dawning on her, one of the customers starts having a seizure in the restaurant. Delilah calls for an ambulance, and when she starts to feel like something is off at the juice bar, she makes another call, to Capone himself.
Calvin Capone is a police detective who helped Delilah with a matter when she trying to open her restaurant (okay, it was a murder), and when Delilah started to feel in her gut that the customer had been poisoned, and then she found a threatening note in the kitchen of the juice bar, she knows she has to call the police. But what she doesn’t know, what she couldn’t begin to understand, is how the murder would bring together a criminal from the past, three different local buildings, and Delilah and Sam and Jordan, along with Delilah’s Auntie Biz, to unravel a series of financial crimes that lead to several attempts at murder.
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust is the second book in Mindy Quigley’s Deep Dish Mysteries. With a tasty mystery and a cast of memorable characters, these books bake up into a delicious combination of murder, pizza, friendship, family, and flirting. This cozy mystery is layered with a divine setting, strong relationships, an adorable cat, and recipes for the drinks and snacks featured throughout the book.
I really enjoyed Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust, as the mystery comes with secrets and twists. The dark history of nearby Chicago adds some spice to these mysteries, offering a unique perspective on America’s fascination with the mob. But the beauty of the lake and the expensive homes contrast that dark history with luxury. But what I love most about these mysteries is Delilah and how she does everything she can to protect those around her. Even when she’s fighting with her Aunt Biz or having to deal with Sonya’s past coming back to maybe try to destroy them and the restaurant, Delilah is a fierce defender of those she holds close. And anytime there is talk of a pretzel crust, or pretzel bites, or pretzel anything, I am all in.
Egalleys for Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.
