BOOK REVIEW: A Deadly Feast (Key West food critic mystery #9) by Lucy Burdette @LucyBurdette @crookedlanebks #adeadlyfeast #bookreview

It’s nearly Thanksgiving in Key West and for food critic Hayley Snow, that can only mean one thing—lobster macaroni, key lime pie, and murder! We find Hayley preparing for not only Thanksgiving, but for her wedding to fiancé Nathan Bransford, when a dead body threatens to put a stop to the whole thing. With yummy food descriptions, vibrant settings, and a great cast of characters, the latest installment in the Key West Food Critic mysteries A Deadly Feast is a fun cozy mystery!

About the Book

Thanksgiving is nearly here, and Key West food critic Hayley Snow has just one more assignment to put to bed for Key Zest magazine before she gets to celebrate with her family and her police officer fiancé, Nathan Bransford. Then, just days later, wedding bells will ring—if death doesn’t toll first.

The sweet potatoes and stuffing will have to wait when Hayley picks up a distraught phone call from her friend, Analise Smith. On the last stop of a seafood tasting tour run by Analise, one of the customers collapsed—dead. With the police on the verge of shutting down the tour—and ruining Analise’s business—Hayley can hardly refuse her friend’s entreaties to investigate.

As if wedding jitters and family strife weren’t enough for Hayley to worry about, there’s crusty pastry chef Martha Hubbard, whose key lime pie may have been the murder weapon—but did she poison her own pie or was she framed? As the hours to Turkey Day tick away, the pressure cooker is on for Hayley to serve up the culprit on a silver platter in A Deadly Feast, national bestselling author Lucy Burdette’s taste-tempting ninth Key West Food Critic mystery.

Reflection

Hayley Snow is a bit frantic as this book opens, but she is doing her best to take it in stride. Her wedding is only days away (not to mention, so is Thanksgiving), and her father, stepmother, and stepbrother are arriving soon. In addition to the expected tension between her father and her mother’s beau, Hayley also finds herself without a contractor to fix the houseboat she and Nathan were set to move into following their wedding.

But all of those worries may become obsolete when a seafood tasting tour she is covering for her job as a food critic for Key Zest magazine ends up with a death. Even worst, her friend Analise’s business running the seafood tasting may go under. As Hayley puts wedding planning partly on hold to look into the murder, her fiancé Nathan is tied up on a dangerous and mysterious case of his own.

Will Hayley and Nathan be able to come together in time for their wedding? Will Hayley be able to discover who was responsible for murder? Time is ticking and Hayley has a LOT on her plate—pun intended!

This was my first book from the Key West Food Critic mysteries, and I can see why they are so beloved! Hayley is a really great protagonist—she has strong instincts and a big heart, though she certainly is a bit impulsive and prone to worrying, relative to her fiancé Nathan! It was interesting because Nathan was sort of absent working on his own case. When we saw them together, it was nice to hear about them working out the challenges of being married to a police detective. I’d imagine the spouses and loved ones of police detectives have quite a hard time not getting worried when their loved one can’t call in.

I did think that this one got a bit too focused on the details of Hayley’s life (which, in fairness, were interesting and she was QUITE busy at the time of this mystery), and it took awhile for the mystery to really pick up. Even after it picked up, we were more focused on finding out what Nathan’s case was than on following leads Hayley was pursuing.

This balance is always the key to how a cozy mystery is read. I think long-time fans of the series probably didn’t mind the mystery being secondary. But for me, I wanted a bit more of the mystery to be front and center. Hayley seemed a bit reluctant to investigate it, which though I just met her did feel a bit out of character! I definitely want to revisit a few of the earlier books. I wonder if Hayley wasn’t as invested in this case because of how much was going on in her life, or because she wasn’t as close to the murder (not someone she knew nor that she discovered)?

Regardless, though the mystery didn’t pick up until the end of the book, it was so entertaining when it did hit! Plus we got a sweet ending to the book and some fantastic recipes (hello, lobster macaroni and cheese) that made my mouth water just reading about!

All in all this was a fun virtual getaway to Key West, and I loved the vivid descriptions of the scenery, food, and characters! I’ll definitely try another from this series. Thank you to Crooked Lane Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.