grilling cheese and solving crimes

Carly Hale is back in her home town following her lifelong dream—opening a grilled cheese restaurant in the small Vermont town she grew up in. She found a location in the town green, right downtown, where tourists and locals alike could stop in for some delicious comfort food. She opened Carly’s Grilled Cheese Eatery, and she hired single mother Suzanne to help out and chef-in-training Grant to help in the kitchen.

Carly is starting over after losing her husband to a car accident. She put all of his life insurance money into this dream of hers, and she is excited for her future. Or she was, until the lawyer for the bank stopped by one afternoon to talk to her. It turns out that the building where her restaurant space is had just been sold and the new owner doesn’t want to renew her lease. He has something else in mind for the space. Carly is devastated, as moving her new restaurant would be an enormous expense, and she may not be able to find another location as good.

She’d have to start all over. Again.

And then when the new owner comes in and announces himself, and shares his plans for the space, Carly gets even more upset. Lyle Bagley was her high school boyfriend, until he dumped Carly to go out with her best friend Gina. Carly had tried to warn Gina away from Lyle, but Gina thought she was just jealous and stuck with him, even married him. Now they’re divorced, and Lyle wants to give the space to his new girlfriend, Tiffany, so she can open a fashion boutique in the prime location.

Carly was upset about this, but Suzanne was downright angry. She yelled at Lyle, telling him that she hopes he gets what’s coming to him. Carly wanted to ask her about that, but she was worried about overstepping, and just let Suzanne leave at the end of her shift. But when Carly comes into work the next day and finds Lyle dead in the building parking lot, Carly wishes she had asked Suzanne about her outburst. Instead, she has to call the police and hope that Suzanne has a good explanation for them.

But as the investigation heats up, Carly feels like Suzanne is their prime suspect. She doesn’t believe that Suzanne could kill anyone, and Grant agrees. But that means that someone else killed Lyle, and Carly wants to figure out who that was, so she can get Suzanne off the police’s radar. And then she can focus on her restaurant, and whether the new owner of the building is going to evict her too.

Up to No Gouda is the first in a new cozy series by author Linda Reilly. The first in the Grilled Cheese Mystery series sets up strong characters and an interesting story in a charming small town. There’s even a dog named Havarti. And when you’ve gotten to the bottom of the mystery and the end of the book, there are recipes for several of the signature grilled cheese recipes from the restaurant and some cooking tips from Carly.

I am a big fan of cheese and murder mysteries, so I was really excited to get started reading about an amateur detective in the grilled cheese restaurant. I thought Up to No Gouda was a lot of fun. I love the concept of the grilled cheese eatery, which I thought was very modern. But I also thought that some of the details were a little dated (like that everyone was wearing slacks). But I think this series has a lot of potential, and I look forward to reading more about the grilled cheese sandwiches (and murders).

Egalleys for Up to No Gouda were provided by Poisoned Pen Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.