Jackie Finds Murder Mushrooming
I loved last year’s debut of the Fatal Food Festival Mysteries, so I was really looking forward to finding out what happened to Jackie next. (Well, in the next novel. We’ll get to that in a minute.) I’m pleased to say that I really enjoyed Mushroom Capped, the second book in the series.
If you are just hearing about the series, Jackie Norwood is a former celebrity chef. After her world fell apart, she is attempting to rebuild her life and career by appearing at various food festivals around the country. Unfortunately for her (but fortunately for us), she is finding murder is following her to the various festivals.
In this book, Jackie is appearing at the second annual Conway Mushroom Festival. One reason she’s especially looking forward to this festival is the chance to reconnect with Marshall, another former celebrity chef on the Gourmet Channel.
Unfortunately, trouble is brewing in town. Conway is known for their mushrooms, but a large company has moved to the area and is pressuring local farmers to sell their land to them. When Jackie finds the owner of this company dead, the police look at Marshall as their prime suspect. Can she figure out who is really a killer?
One thing I love about cozy mystery series is getting to spend time with characters we love in every book. While this series won’t feature the same location in every book since Jackie is always on the move, I was happy to see all the characters I’d grown to love in the first book show up again here. They each got a moment to shine, although I didn’t feel they got quite as much development as in the first book. But that’s a minor complaint. On the other hand, some of their antics made me laugh, and the puns were wonderful.
The plot is strong. We start out with conflict, and it isn’t that long before the victim turns up dead. The opening conflict gave us a good stable of well-developed suspects, and the clues and red herrings kept me guessing. When I reached the end, I was impressed with how the clues and motives had been woven into the story, even in scenes that I thought weren’t as important.
As I mentioned earlier, this is a new location Jackie has not visited before. Obviously, that opens the series up to new suspects and motives for murder, which was put to good use. But this is still a small community, and I felt right at home right away.
Author Cathy Wiley had already introduced Jackie with her stories in the Destination Murders anthologies. While the first book was Jackie’s first time getting caught up in murder, one of those stories takes place between the two books. However, there aren’t any spoilers to either of Jackie’s previous cases, so you can jump in here if you want. Either way, you’ll want to make sure you’ve read all of her mysteries.
If you like mushrooms, you’ll be happy with the five recipes at the end of the book. They sure sound good to me.
Mushroom Capped was a delightful second mystery. If you are looking for a new culinary cozy series, you need to check this one out.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
There was a family that died from eating a poisonous mushroom dish here not too long ago! Couldn't help but think of that when I read your review!
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