Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Fun mystery and characters, new and old
Cons: A couple of niggles with the plot
The Bottom Line:
Quiet season is
Dangerous with a murder
In this fun third book
Somebody Gets Skewered
One of the areas where most amateur sleuth books fall apart
is how much time the main character spends sleuthing when they supposedly have
a business to run. Do I care? No, because if it were real life, I’d get
bored very quickly. But Susannah Hardy
has a wonderful solution to this problem in A Killer Kebab.
You see, this book is set in November, and it is the slow
season in northern New York because all the tourists have gone home. Bonaparte House has closed for the season,
leaving Georgie Nikolopatos with not much to do, especially since her family is
out of time. She has some friend’s
recipes to go through and has hired a contractor to redo the restaurant’s
bathrooms.
But before she can get too settled into the peace and quiet
of winter, she finds the body of Jim MacNamara, her divorce lawyer, in one of
the demolished bathrooms. The police are
quick to arrest Russ, a former employee of the restaurant and son of their head
cook. Russ is currently out on parole
for lesser crimes and not a very nice man, but Georgie has a hard time
believing that he’s a killer. But who
might have wanted the lawyer dead?
Obviously, with the restaurant closed and so many of
Georgie’s family and even some friends out of the area, she has plenty of time
to sleuth. And what a fun trail of clues
she follows here to reach the satisfying solution. Oh, there are some red herrings and other
distractions along the way, but there were plenty of twists that kept me glued
to the page wanting to find out what happens next. I do have a couple of niggles with the story,
but they are minor overall.
Unfortunately, with everyone out of the picture, we don’t
see that much of the series regulars.
Instead, a minor character from previous books steps into the sidekick
role. That wasn’t too much of an issue
since I really liked getting to know Brenda better. Georgie herself is still a strong, fun, and
resourceful main character.
And we’ve got four new recipes. There’s a recipe for Thousand Island dressing
(which is named after the region where the series is set, something I didn’t
know), Maple Walnut sandies, a Greek cheese pie, and Greek seasonings. They all sound delicious.
There is an on-going story in this series that is part of
this book again, so it is best to read these books in order. They are so much fun, that this isn’t a big
issue at all.
So take a trip to New York to visit Georgie. You’ll enjoy A Killer Kebab.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
I like the sound of this one! It always bugs me in a cozy when the sleuth never seems to actually do her job. There was a series I read years ago where the MC was a professional organizer yet she never once finished a job. It drove me crazy. That being said if it was ALL work and regular life stuff that'd be pretty boring too so balance is necessary. I like how Hardy gives her MC time to be a detective and I like that a lesser known character moves into the forefront. I definitely want to read this one!
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