The Quiche and the Dead (A Pie Town Mystery Book 1)
By: Kirsten Weiss
Rating: 5 of 5
Valentine Harris, known as Val to just about everyone, has come to San Nicholas to build a new life with her fiance. Part of that is opening a pie shop using her recently passed away mother’s family recipes.
The engagement has already been broken as the book begins. Val is trying to rid herself of the last reminder of their time together, her very expensive and unused wedding dress.
Still, she is making a go of running her shop, known as Pie Town. This, in spite of her next door neighbor, Heidi, who is running a gym and hates that people eat sugar. Heidi seems to simply hate Pie Town and Val as well.
A customer drops dead in Pie Town, after eating one of her homemade pies. Because of that, Val becomes a suspect when it is found out that he died of poisoning.
Her piecrust maker, Charlene, steps in and gets Val to start investigating the murder with her. In part, because she wants to clear her name and in another part because of an inducement that Charlene has dangled in front of her nose.
The story is great fun to read and the whodunnit was unexpected but could be traced to clues. The characters are my favorite part of the this series. I quickly fell in love with Crazy Charlene (who admits to being in her forties, yeah, maybe decades ago.) Val, has her straight man, brings humor to the tale as well.
I’m already reading the second book and have queued up the third and the fourth one as well. I’ll have to wait until the author writes a fifth book but I will be waiting to read it as soon as it is available.
It’s always great to add a new favorite series to my list of must-reads and this one is just that – a must read for me.
Valentine Harris, known as Val to just about everyone, has come to San Nicholas to build a new life with her fiance. Part of that is opening a pie shop using her recently passed away mother’s family recipes.