At Gram's Country Cooking School, Betts and Gram are helping students prepare the perfect dishes for the Southern Missouri Show-Down, the cook-off that draws the first of the summer visitors. Everything is going smoothly until they discover the body of local theater owner Everett Morningside in the school's supply closet, and Everett's widow points an accusatory finger at Gram. Now, Betts has to dig deep into Broken Rope's history to find the modern-day killer-before the last piece of chicken is served...

Review

For fans of:  Sheila Connolly, Alice Kimberly

Broken Rope, Missouri is a small town with a long history of odd characters, strange happenings, and violent deaths.  The citizens of Broken Rope don’t shy away their berg’s sordid past, however – they’ve chosen to make bank on it, and thanks to some clever marketing, the streets positively teem with tourists during the summer.

Old West lore isn’t the only thing the town has going for it, though; lately, it seems more and more folks are coming to Broken Rope to study cooking at the feet of Missouri Anna Winston and her granddaughter, Isabelle “Betts” Winston.  Gram’s Country Cooking School has earned itself quite the reputation, and at the moment, its students are working hard to prepare their entries for the Southern Missouri Showdown cook-off.  Their efforts are brought to a screeching halt, however, when Betts and Gram find local theater-owner Everett Morningside dead in their supply closet – and the police arrest Gram for his murder.  Betts is determined to clear Gram’s name and get things at the school back on track in time for the cook-off, but she’s going to need all the help she can get – even if the only one offering his assistance is the ghost of one of Broken Rope’s most famous resident outlaws.

If Fried Chicken Could Fly is the first of Paige Shelton’s Country Cooking School Mysteries.  The central conceit of the series – that both Betts and her grandmother can see and communicate with the ghosts of Broken Rope – is fun and full of potential, but unfortunately, the other components of this particular tale fall kind of flat.  The pace is slow, the stakes are low, and the mystery’s construction is sketchy at best.  There’s not much action or tension, Shelton doesn’t deploy nearly enough suspects or clues, and she never successfully convinces the reader that Gram’s actually in any danger of being charged with murder.  You never really get to know the dead man, and therefore never get all that invested in seeing his killer brought to justice.  And the book is lacking in atmosphere; we’re told over and over again how unique and interesting a place Broken Rope is to live, but in this regard, Shelton does too much telling and not enough showing. 

The cast of If Fried Chicken Could Fly is a bit of a mixed bag.  Betts is a likable enough heroine; tenacious and passionate, her interactions with (and complicated feelings for) ex-boyfriend Cliff and the ghostly Jerome Cowbender are a big part of what make this book worth reading.  And for his part, Jerome makes for a sweet, charming, and thoroughly unique sidekick-slash-crush.  The story’s more minor characters, however, are all either too one-dimensional or too quirky to feel real, and do little to help flesh out Shelton’s fictional world.
I actually really like Shelton’s other mystery series (the Farmers’ Market Mystery Series featuring jam-maker Becca Robins), so there’s a fair chance If Fried Chicken Could Fly is just an off book for her; there’s certainly the sketch of a good book here, but unfortunately, it feels like Shelton never went back and took the time to make the sketch a finished picture.

Reviewed by Kat

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