Death with All the Trimmings by Lucy Burdette

Death with All the Trimmings by Lucy Burdette ISBN-13: 9780451465900 Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: December 1, 2014

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
It may be Christmastime, but thoughts of peace on earth, good will toward men, don’t seem to extend to the restaurant biz. Hayley Snow, food critic for Key Zest magazine, has been assigned to interview Edel Waugh, chef/owner of Key West’s hottest new restaurant. But off the record, Edel reveals someone’s sabotaging her kitchen and asks Hayley to investigate.

Things heat up fast when the restaurant is set on fire—and a body is discovered in the charred wreckage. Amid holiday festivities like the lighted boat parade and visiting relatives who stir up mixed emotions, Hayley needs to smoke out an arsonist and a killer who may turn up the heat on her next…


My Review:
Death with All the Trimmings is a cozy mystery/suspense. It's the fifth book in the series. You don't need to read the previous novels to understand this one, and this book didn't spoil the whodunits of the previous novels.

The story was more of a suspense, with the heroine being shot and a friend getting tied up, than a mystery. There were some clues as to who was involved in the various incidents, but more attention was on the drama of everyone's lives. In the end, I thought they'd forgotten to find the actual murderer. The only mention of whodunit was from one Bad Person accusing another of the murder. We're given practically no clues about the actual murder, so I'd expected at least some police confirmation that they'd found proof against the accused and that it was, indeed, whodunit. Ah, well.

There was some bad language (or, as one of the characters would call it, "naughty language"). There was no sex. I'd recommend this novel to people who enjoy suspenseful, drama-filled books with a focus on awesome food.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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