For Sandy Harbor’s tastiest comfort food, venture to the Silver Bullet Diner. But head next door to the new drive-in theater if you have an appetite for murder….
Trixie Matkowski has a tall order to fill this fall. Aside from dishing out delicious fare at the Silver Bullet during peak fishing season, she’s helping her friend—Antoinette Chloe Brown, or ACB for short—open a drive-in movie theater in the vacant lot beside her diner. It’s just the thing to take ACB’s mind off Nick, her missing biker beau.
But their plans are fried after Nick’s body is discovered during the groundbreaking for the drive-in. And when the police connect the murder weapon to ACB, she becomes the prime suspect in eighty-sixing Nick. With the fate of her innocent friend and her business on the line, Trixie must make the guilty party pay up before someone else gets stiffed….
Includes Delicious Home-Style Recipes!
Trixie Matkowski enjoys serving the residents of Sandy Harbor, New York the best in comfort food from the Silver Bullet Diner. She’s happy to learn that her best friend Antoinette Chloe Brown has decided to open an old-fashioned drive-in movie theater right next door. A fun groundbreaking ceremony is planned, but the excitement turns to horror when the digging reveals the dead body of Antoinette Chloe’s missing boyfriend, Nick. Trixie’s friend is devastated over Nick’s death, but if that’s not bad enough, Antoinette Chloe is arrested for the murder. Trixie knows her kind-hearted friend is not the guilty party, so she decides to start her own investigation to find the real murderer.
The best part of this book is how funny it is. Reading the title, Diners, Drive-ins, and Death is so clever and the writing in the rest of the book is just as humorous. The quirky characters and funny situations ae worthy of a Janet Evanovich novel. Fans of that series will enjoy the adventures of Trixie and Antoinette Chloe. This is the third novel in the Comfort Food series, but this is the first one I’ve read. I was able to quickly catch up on who is who in Sandy Harbor. The only thing I can’t understand is why Antoinette still seems half in love with her ex-husband, who apparently tried to kill both her and Trixie in a previous book.
I enjoy the comradery between Trixie and Antoinette Chloe as well as the friendship between Trixie and Ty. I don’t know if the hunky deputy Ty will be more than just a friend to Trixie in future books, but it’s obvious there is chemistry there, even though Trixie tries to deny her attraction to Ty. This may sound picky, but the name “Antoinette Chloe” is a mouthful. Sometimes Trixie and Ty refer to her by the nickname “ACB”, but unfortunately most people call her by her full first and middle name each time they talk to her or about her, which soon becomes monotonous to read.
The book is entertaining because of the interesting characters and funny dialogue, but Trixie could use some help in the sleuthing department. At one point in the story, Trixie and Ty acknowledge that “ACB” is in danger from another possible suspect in Nick’s murder. Strangely, only a couple of paragraphs later, the two are completely baffled as to who would possible have a motive for framing ACB. There are a few other times when Trixie isn’t able to figure out some pretty obvious clues. Perhaps in future books, even if they don’t get together as a couple. Trixie and Ty can work together so they are better equipped for an investigation.
Everything gets wrapped up at the end and the epilogue is cleverly done in the format of an e-mail from Trixie to her Aunt Stella. A few recipes from the diner follow this to wrap up the book. There are some missteps in the book, but overall, I enjoyed the story and would read another in this series to catch up on what’s happening next in the lives of Trixie, Ty, and ACB.
Reviewed by Christine
