Finger Lickin Dead by Riley Adams

Ok, so foodie mysteries are pretty awesome. And despite the fact that I was barely into the book and already knew who was going to die and who killed them, I actually still enjoyed this book. Having read the first one, it was kind of nice to return to these characters too. But don't worry, you don't have to read the first book in order to enjoy the second.

Lulu is up to her investigating ways again. The owner of Pat's BBQ Lulu always seems to find herself in some sort of mystery. This time, one of her friend's boyfriend has just turned up murdered. It doesn't help that he was just exposed as an especially ruthless food critic, and a cheater on many women, so there's a lot of people wanting him dead who have a lot of motive. And considering some of the people are very close to Lulu, she knows she needs to get to the bottom of this and quick. But with everyone keeping secrets and changing stories, it certainly is hard to solve a crime and run the best bbq restaurant in town at the same time.

Lulu is great. She's a warm character who looks out for her friends and runs a successful business. She's an inspiration to any foodie. Although her getting herself into mysteries can be a little far-fetched at times. There area lot of other unique characters too, but I noticed that they weren't quite used to their full potential like they were in the first book. This one mainly stuck with Lulu and her friend Evelyn and while we still got to see some of the other characters, I would have liked them to appear more. The bad guys in this book weren't quite as menacing either.

Since this could be considered a cozy mystery it definitely shares more elements of food and friendship than a crime novel. And I like that. Its still gives the reader something to look forward to but is more gentle. And it reads quick and light and is great brain candy when you just want to relax. But its the foodie in me that really appreciates this sort of book. Just reading about bbq is enough to make my mouth water, and the fact that they included some recipes in the back, even better. In fact, that's what made the whole book for me was the chance to get my hands on some new recipes.

So an average mystery novel that can be solved pretty easy, but an outstanding book when it comes to the foodie realm. I can't wait to read the next one.

Finger Lickin Dead
Copyright 2011
250 pages

Delicious and Suspicious: A Memphis BBQ Mystery by Riley Adams

I am a big fan of BBQ. Really, I could eat it every day no problem. So of course a mystery novel that would involve BBQ would be an eye-catcher for me. Well I found this book ok, not as much food description as I would have liked and highly predictable, but still cozy all the same.

Lulu is the proud owner of Aunt Pat's Bar-B-Que located in Memphis, TN. She is especially proud this week because a food scout/reporter from the Cooking Channel is coming to interview her for a segment on best bbqs. Lulu knows her food is good enough, she has several regulars to prove it; like the old blues playing gentlemen and the Graces (bit odd women who are docents for Graceland and obsessed with all things Elvis). But what she isn't prepared for is how rude the reporter is and how insulting. It is no great surprise when this same reporter ends up dead of poisoning not long after. Unfortunately for Lulu though, it was right after eating some BBQ. Even though the police are on the case, Lulu is determined to catch the murderer, but isn't happy when a lot of the clues lead her to her friends and family.

The characters in this book are very two-dimensional. It seems the author chose an attribute for each and then pounds that fact into our heads without developing them further. For an example, Lulu has a chef son Ben and Ben likes to hunt. We only know this because it is about the only thing said about him, and after all that, I still don't think he ever gets to go hunting. In fact, Lulu herself is the only one who is really more developed than the rest. But that is probably because she occupies a good part of the novel and we spend the most time with her. It seems the author could have cut down on the characters some instead of having tons and not developing them fully.

The plot was very predictable. I knew who the murderer was about 1/3 of the way into the book despite the author's best attempts to lead me elsewhere. She just made it too easy. She did throw in one little surprise, but it wasn't enough to save the book from the easy guessing game. It was nicely written, very cozy and a good light read. But for being a foodie novel I was a bit disappointed with how often food was mentioned. Sure it redeemed itself a bit with including recipes in the end, but I still would have liked to hear more about the food.

It's not a terrible book but it could have been a bit more mysterious. I did like reading it and it was a nice easy read to get into. It just would have been better if it was harder to solve the mystery and included more food. I'll probably check out some of the others in this like-genre though.

Delicious and Suspicious
Copyright 2010
269 pages + recipes