ISBN-10: 0425259544
ISBN-13: 978-0425259542
Publisher: Penguin Group
Line: Berkley
Release Date: August 6, 2013
Pages: 304
Retail Price: 7.99
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Genre: Mystery
Rating:
FIRST IN A NEW SERIES!
The town of Jewel Bay, Montana—known as a Food Lovers' Village—is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare. So when Erin Murphy takes over her family’s century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies. But Erin’s freshly booming business might go rotten when a former employee turns up dead…
Murphy’s Mercantile, known as the Merc, has been a staple in Jewel Bay for over a hundred years. To celebrate their recent makeover as a gourmet food market, Erin has organized a town festival, Festa di Pasta, featuring the culinary goods of Jewel Bay’s finest—including her mother Fresca’s delicious Italian specialties.
But Erin’s sweet success is soured when the shop’s former manager, Claudette, is found dead behind the Merc on the Festa’s opening night. With rival chef James Angelo stirring up rumors that Fresca’s sauce recipes were stolen from Claudette, Erin’s mother is under close scrutiny. Now Erin will have to hunt down some new suspects, or both her family and her store might wind up in hot water…
INCLUDES FRESH, DELICIOUS RECIPES!
Review
When Erin Murphy returns home to Jewel Bay, Montana to manage the family business, she knows she has her work cut out for her; the previous manager, her mother Fresca’s old friend Claudette, very nearly ran Glacier Mercantile (aka The Merc) into the ground. Erin’s determined to turn things around, though, and is working hard to not only straighten out the books and smooth things over with their suppliers, but to also increase profits by rebranding The Merc as an “artisan market for local and regional foods.”
As part of her marketing efforts, Erin spearheads the organization of the Festa di Pasta – a village-wide festival highlighting locally made Italian foodstuffs. The Festa is incredibly well attended and looks like it’s going to be great PR for The Merc – until Erin discovers Claudette’s dead body in the back alley and local law enforcement starts eyeing Fresca as a suspect. Can Erin catch the real killer, or will the scandal spell the end for Fresca and The Merc both?
Death al Dente is the first in Leslie Budewitz’s new Food Lovers’ Village Mystery series, and it’s a truly fantastic debut. The book manages to make a strong argument in favor of the “buy local” movement without coming off preachy or detracting from the plot. The setting is unique (what’s the last mystery you read that took place in Montana?) and Budewitz does a great job of bringing the town of Jewel Bay to life on the page. The mystery is well crafted – full of twists, turns, and clever red herrings – and there’s no shortage of viable suspects, each of whom has something to hide.
Budewitz’s prose is witty and intelligent, her narrative drive is strong, and her dialogue has great rhythm and rings 100% true.
Perhaps my favorite thing about Death al Dente, though – and the thing that’ll have me waiting in line for the next book in the series – is the protagonist. I not only liked Erin – I almost instantly identified with her. She feels real in a way that a lot of cozy heroines just don’t. Romance is a part of her life, but it doesn’t consume her. She’s seen tragedy, but it doesn’t define her. Her relationships with friends and family are complicated, but only in the sorts of ways that everyone’s are. She’s smart, she’s funny, she’s driven, she’s tattooed, she loves wine, she has a cat; she’s not just a cardboard cutout written to attract a certain demographic – she’s an authentic-seeming, well-rounded person, and one I’d be happy to know in real life. And honestly, what more can you ask for from a series main character?
Reviewed by Kat