cold cases and hot ovens

Delilah O’Leary is working hard to keep her pizza restaurant, Delilah and Son, open through the slow season. There haven’t been tourists for months, and the Valentine’s Day reservations aren’t quite rolling in as quickly as she’d hoped. To help take her mind off of the restaurant, she goes ice fishing with her Auntie Biz and her sous chef Sonya. But when Delilah cuts through the ice, the augur catches on something, and once she gets it loose and pulls it back up, they all see what it is. It’s a human finger.

When the police find the rest of the diver, they realize that he hadn’t been under the ice all that long. He had gone diving in the lake for something just days before he was found, which is dangerous. What could have made him make such a reckless decision? And was he working alone, or was someone with him? And if someone had been with him, why hadn’t they reported it?

Geneva Bay, Wisconsin, had long been linked to the mafia in Chicago. It was a place where the well-off could build a vacation house and get away from the city. Delilah’s boyfriend, police detective Calvin Capone, was related to the famous gangster Al Capone, and the mayor has decided to add a mafia-related tour to the town, to try to encourage tourists in the colder months. But it’s not until Delilah and her squad of amateur detectives find a connection between the dead man and information about a bank heist that went missing that Delilah starts to understand why someone may have gone diving under the ice.

But the only way she can figure out to get the proof she needs to show she’s right is to dive down herself. It’s risky, but she does have some diving experience. She might be able to pull it off. Unless the killer finds out what she’s up to and puts a stop to it themself.

At Death’s Dough is the latest from Mindy Quigley’s delicious Deep Dish mystery series. As with her other mysteries in this series, there are feisty characters, references to Chicago’s mobsters, mouth-watering dishes (and recipes to boot), one ornery cat, and an even more ornery elderly aunt (please don’t tell her I called her that).

I really enjoyed the plotline of this book, with the missing treasure from the bank heist and the search to make the connections between the past and the present. I also liked the story of Sonya’s Valentine’s journey. I thought that made a lovely counter to the seriousness of the murder. I love that there are always recipes in the back, and narrated by the character who invented the dish. At Death’s Dough, like the other books in this series, made me happy. And hungry.

Egalleys for At Death’s Dough were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.