Book Review: The Fragrance of Death by Leslie Karst (Sally Solari Mysteries #5)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Strong characters and mystery

Cons: I’m not smelling any cons

The Bottom Line:

Death at festival

Great to see Sally again

Book was worth the wait

Murder is Nothing to Artichoke Over

I wasn’t ready to let go of the Sally Solari Mysteries after the fourth book ended since several things in her personal life were left up in the air.  It’s taken a few years and a new publisher, but I am pleased to say author Leslie Karts has brought Sally back in top form with The Fragrance of Death.

Thanks to a sinus infection, Sally has lost her sense of smell.  Since she is a restauranter, that would normally be a problem since it would impede her ability to make her dishes the best they can be.  But the timing is even worse since she is participating in the Santa Cruz Artichoke Cook-Off that day without all of her staff to back her up.

However, Sally’s inability to smell becomes the least of her worries when Neil Lerici turns up dead near the end of the contest.  Sally had been friends with Neil’s older sister in high school, although the two have drifted apart.  As Sally reconnects with Grace, she quickly realizes that Grace is among the suspects in Neil’s death.  Can she uncover evidence to prove her friend is innocent?  Or is Grace guilty?

It was great to be back in Santa Cruz with Sally.  Fans of the series will be happy to hear that we do get some updates on the ongoing storylines in her life.  And I’m anxious to see where things go in book six.

The characters we love are all here and are at their best.  I will admit, I cringed a bit at some of Sally’s behavior, but I understood it.  She never acts stupid, but you just know there will be consequences for what she does.  I loved checking in with the rest of the regulars as well.

The new characters were wonderful.  They kept us guessing and became more real the more time we spent with them.

The plot itself is strong.  With the suspects doing their best to confuse us, it takes until the very end of the book for Sally to figure out what is going on.  Quite often, I have an inkling just before the big reveal, but I was actually still stumped here, but once Sally figured it out, all the pieces clicked into place for me.

Each book in the series has focused on a different of the five senses.  I find it ironic that the book focusing on the sense of smell came out as we are dealing with Covid, where one of the symptoms is the loss of smell.  I did appreciate that this isn’t the reason that Sally lost her sense of smell, and I’ve got to say, it made for a fantastic sub-plot in the book.

As always, there are some recipes at the end.  This time, there are five.  Yes, one features artichokes, but we get a wide variety of recipes.

You could easily jump in here if you wanted to, but I’m always going to recommend you read the series in order since the character relationships are richer if you do.

If you’ve been waiting impatiently to find out what happens next to Sally, you’ll be well rewarded with The Fragrance of Death.  I know the author is working on the next book in the series, which is great news for fans.

Here are the rest of the Sally Solari Mysteries in order.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.