Eggsecutive Orders by Julie Hyzy

Yay, let's hear it for cozy mysteries set in the White House! Ok, so it wasn't that good, but it still was enjoyable. And I like that its set in the White House, it makes it unique. This is a part of a series and I highly suggest you read the others first or some things just won't make sense in this book.

When a dinner guest winds up dead, Ollie and her staff is on suspension. Which drives her nuts. She wants to clear her name, what with reporters and other people slamming her and accusing her of murder, but without being able to be at her job, there's no way to do that. So she does what Ollie does best; she digs for clues wherever she can. And this time, her boyfriend's job is on the line if she does try to search for clues. So she's torn. Clear herself and hurt her boyfriend, or leave things be and possibly lose her job. And with the Easter Egg roll at the White House coming up, she has to get back into her kitchen.

Ollie is always a little bit unbelievable. She seems more interested in mystery than food. But she is still nice to read about and that makes up for it. I did like that we were introduced to her family in this one. It helped explain her background a little and made her seem more realistic. And her grandma was quite a character! I'm still not fond of her boyfriend, he just doesn't seem very nice or supportive of Ollie. Too serious I suppose. The bad guys weren't that chilling in this one either. They had a lot of lead in, but most of this book was about Ollie's personal life more than anything. I do have to say that Bucky was a stand out character in this one. I didn't like him in previous books but I definitely did for this one.

The mystery was hard to solve in this one. And that was because there weren't really any clues for the reader. So in that way it kind of took the fun out of it because I think there would be very few people who would actually guess who the murderer was. And there was less food in this one too. It wasn't described very much and while that could be because Ollie was out of the kitchen for a good portion of the book, I just don't think that excuses it. This is a foodie mystery after all. But they did include some recipes at the end based off of.....you guessed it.....eggs.

An ok cozy mystery, still entertaining to read despite its flaws. I can't wait to move on to the next one by Hyzy.

Eggsecutive Orders
Copyright 2010
327 pages