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Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Book Review: A Sense for Murder by Leslie Karst (Sally Solari Mysteries #6)

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Good characters and a puzzling mystery
Cons: I’m not sensing any major cons
The Bottom Line:
Farm-to-table corpse
Fun twists to the mystery
Will leave fans happy



Fundraising is Murder

While I read the books I pick up because of the mysteries, I definitely get invested in the personal lives of the characters as a series goes on.  And that’s one reason why I was anxious to pick up A Sense for Murder, the sixth book in Leslie Karst’s Sally Solari Mysteries.  While I was anxious to see what was going to happen next in Sally’s personal life, I was also looking forward to a solid mystery.  This book delivered on both fronts.

If you are new to the series, Sally inherited a nice restaurant in Santa Cruz.  Of course, she was already familiar with the local restaurant scene since her parents had run one for years.  She has found that she keeps stumbling over dead bodies since she inherited the restaurant and she’s gaining a reputation for solving crimes.

The newest restaurant in town is Pages and Plums, which also features a culinary bookshop.  They are hosting a farm-to-fork dinner to raise money for a local charity that teaches teens to cook and uses their cooking to feed the homeless and seniors in the community.  Sally volunteers to help cook because she is impressed with the organization that it is benefitting.

In addition to the dinner, the event features a silent auction, and the biggest item is a signed first edition boxed set of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  But just before dessert is served, Pages and Plums’ dining room manager is found dead and the books stolen.  Sally once again finds herself pulled into the case.  Will she figure out what is going on?

The book takes a little time introducing us to the characters who will be important to this story, but it isn’t long before the murder has taken place.  Once that happens, the pace never lags.  There are some fun twists along the way that kept me guessing until the end, when everything made perfect sense.

I’m often talking about reading the books in a series in order, and that’s usually because of the ongoing storylines.  If you care about this kind of thing, you’ll want to read the earlier books in the series first and skip the next paragraph of my review as well.

One reason why I was anxious to read this book was because Sally had finally gotten back together with her ex-boyfriend/best friend Eric.  Yes, I was definitely rooting for them since book one.  I was curious how the relationship would go.  I felt their main conflict here was very realistic.  While I guessed where this was going early on, I appreciated how it was handled.

Everyone back?  Great!

Overall, I really enjoyed the character development in this book.  All of the series regulars didn’t get a bunch of page time, but those who did got some nice sub-plots that kept me reading.  This meant that the suspects got time to develop, which is always a great thing.

Given the nature of the charity involved, homeless issues do play a part in the book.  I was impressed with the evenhanded way the book handles things.  At first, I thought I might be in for a lecture as I read, but that wasn’t the case.  I should have known better than to fear this since the author has done a good job of touching on issues without lecturing in previous books.

Fans of the series know that each of the books has also focused on one of the five senses.  But this is the sixth book.  Yes, it does explore a bit of the “sixth sense.”  As someone who doesn’t believe in the paranormal, I appreciated how this was handled.  It added some fun notes to the book without really delving into the paranormal cozy spectrum.  There’s nothing here that would take this book out of the real world, so if you are like me, you can pick this book up without worrying about it.

Given the Sally’s restaurant is more upscale, the recipes we get at the back of the book are a bit daunting to this non-cook.  But they sound delicious.  There are five at the end of this book, and there are a couple that I would really love to try.

The author always intended for this to be a six book series.  One of the things that Sally is dealing with here circles back to the first book in the series, and I appreciated how it not only developed her character but also helped close the loop on the series.

If the author sticks with her plan to end the series with A Sense for Murder, fans of the series will be happy with where Sally winds up.  But if the author does decide to return to the character, I will be back for more.

Check out the rest of the Sally Solari Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

I’m reviewing this book as part of a blog tour.  Please visit the rest of the participants and enter the tour wide giveaway below.

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2 comments:

  1. Thank you for your review on "A Sense for Murder" by Leslie Karst. On my TBR list and your review confirms that I have to read this one.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hopping in from Foodies Read. This sounds like an excellent series. I enjoy the personal stories at least as much as the mysteries.

    ReplyDelete

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