Delicious and Suspicious (Memphis BBQ Mystery, #1)

by Riley Adams

Welcome to Aunt Pat's barbecue restaurant, which serves up Memphis fun with a side order of murder.

Recipes included.

Named in honor of Lulu Taylor's great aunt, Aunt Pat's family-run Memphis restaurant is known for its ribs and spicy cornbread. But now the Taylor family will be known for murder...

Rebecca Adrian came to Memphis to suss out the best local BBQ for a prominent Cooking Channel Show. Trouble is, a mystery ingredient has killed her-and now all fingers are pointing to Aunt Pat's restaurant. Horrified that her family is being accused of murder, Lulu fires up her investigative skills to solve the crime before someone else gets skewered.

• ISBN10: 042523553X
• ISBN13: 9780425235539
• Publish Date: 6 July 2010 (first published 1 July 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Penguin USA
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780425235539

Reviews

I'm a huge Myrtle Clover fan so I was interested to see that the author writes/wrote under the pen name Riley Adams and had published the Memphis BBQ Mysteries.

This was an enjoyable cozy mystery series set around a family owned BBQ restaurant. The owner is Lulu Taylor - an eccentric grandmotherly busy body who finds herself embroiled in the investigation when a cooking show scout ends up dead after eating at her restaurant. My favourite character was Derrick. And I enjoyed the Graces too. (They're massive Elvis fans who met at Graceland when they were all going individually every day and were then offered to be volunteer guides.) The mystery itself was interesting enough even if not too surprising. I liked the different viewpoints although it was confusing at first because there are quite a few characters and I couldn't keep them all straight.

Overall enjoyable cozy mystery. 3 stars.

[MurderByDeath]

It wasn't what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. The plot was good, the sense of place was excellent - I could really picture Aunt Pat's - and the characters likeable. The ending was a small departure from your normal cozies, but was handled really well. While this isn't my 'normal' preference for a cozy, I will definitely take a look at the next one in the series - I may be in a cozy reading rut! :)