Brisket and Deadly Tension
Last year, I fell in love with the characters in Ryan Rivers’s Bucket List Mysteries. I hadn’t realized just how much until I sat down to start Barbecue Can Be Deadly, the newest entry in the series.
If you’ve missed it, the series stars Sho Tanaka, an ICU nurse on extended leave after he develops a prescription drug addiction. Needing to get away, he heads to Bluebonnet Hills, Texas, to visit his sister, Jenny, who has just opened a cafe in the area. There he meets former child star Levi Blue, best known for his work on Tween of the Crime. Together, the two seem to find themselves getting involved in murder investigations.
This book finds them getting involved with a local barbecue competition when Jenny decides to enter. Sho immediately notices all the tension between the other professional contestants. But he isn’t prepared when he and Levi stumble over a dead body. With the evidence pointing to Jenny, Sho is quick to jump into the investigation. Who is cooking up more than barbecue?
As I said at the start, I hadn’t realized just how much I was looking forward to reading this book until I sat down to start it and got a big smile on my face before I even got to page one. That’s how much I have truly come to love these characters and their relationships. They can be over the top in a good way, but they are also grounded, and I love spending time around them. We spend a lot of time with the new characters in this book, and they are just as real by the end.
Quite often when I start a book, I have a pretty good idea who the victim will be fairly quickly. With this book, I could have seen the victim being one of several people in the first couple of chapters. I loved that. I did find the pace a little uneven, with the murder happening a little later than it should have. A few minor things seemed a bit overly complicated at the end, but the main mystery is wrapped up satisfactorily.
I mentioned that Sho is fighting a prescription drug addiction earlier. In addition to that, Levi is worried about having inherited early onset dementia from his father. Both are handled well, and it really lets us get to know the characters better.
But this is a comedic mystery. Honest! The author does a fantastic job of balancing the laughs with the more serious character elements. This book didn’t seem quite as funny as some of the other stories with the characters I’ve read, but I still got plenty of laughs along the way.
I’ve got to admit, I’m already missing the characters. It’s going to be a long wait until the next book comes out. If you are looking for a fun mystery, be sure to check out Barbecue Can Be Deadly.
NOTE: I received and ARC of this book.
I'm glad this worked as a comedic mystery. I like a Texas setting.
ReplyDeleteI do love a cozy where I really fall in love with the characters and this sounds like a fantastic one! I do like that there are some serious elements to keep it from being a bit too quirky.
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