annieb123
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust is the second Deep Dish cozy mystery by Mindy Quigley. Due out 25th April 2023 from Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 320 pages and will be available in mass market paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is an engaging light shopfront cozy with an appealing female protagonist pizza-shop owner and her partner and best friend, a chubby tabby cat, and a prediliction for stumbling over mysteries. It's full of the sort of small town quirky eccentric characters which populate cozies to readers' delight.
The plot arc is admittedly a tiny bit trope-y but quite entertaining and it's a fun read overall. The denouement and resolution are satisfyingly self-contained in this book, but there's a third book planned for release in late 4th quarter 2023.
There are more than the usual number of pizza themed recipes included in the back of the book including some very fancy (and detailed) pizzas based on nduja (Calabrian spreadable sausage) and a Bulgarian specialty cheese.
Four stars. Highly recommended for fans of humorous light shopfront cozies like those from Ellie Alexander, Laurie Cass, and Peggy Ehrhart.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.