The Big Chili (Undercover Dish Mystery, Book 1) by Julia Buckley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was in need of a break from all the paranormal novels that I had been reading lately, so wandering in the library the other day, looking through the shelves, I discovered this Undercover Cooking Series. I have always had a thing for cozy mysteries, so why not.
The Big Chili is the start of this cute, but short series. Liliah Drake works in her parents real estate office, but her passion is cooking, and so she has created this little secret side business for herself. She makes wonderful food creations, usually potluck time dishes and casseroles for her list of clients, and then she delivers them to the people in secret and they in turn pass off the dishes as their own. It's become quite profitable for Lilah.
Trouble starts when at a church bingo night, someone drops dead after tasting her chili, but of course no one knows that she made it because one of her clients, Pet Grundy has been passing this chili off as her own for years. Pet is terrified that someone will discover that she didn't make the chili, and makes Lilah promise not to tell the police that she actually made the chili.
Detective Jay Parker is the lead on this case, and he is smitten with Lilah, but then there is the secret that Lilah is keeping, it is driving her nuts because she feels bad about not telling the truth. What looked like a straight forward case of who-done-it turns into a complicated twists of who and why, with half the town involved in one way or another.
This was a cute book, it was a great start of a new cozy series and it ended with a great number of recipes. Only issue I had with the recipes is that they centered on a gourmet food product brand that came from the story, which leaves readers with no way to actually make any of the dishes.
Aside from that, it was a good story and I look forward to continuing with the second book.
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