Hot pasta and a cold corpse make for quite a combination in the latest book in the Ethnic Eats mystery series.
When Laurel Inwood features Italian cuisine on the Terminal at the Tracks menu, she knows she’ll need to stock the shelves, the fridge, and the freezer with plenty of wonderful delicacies. She just never expected one of them to be her former employer, Hollywood superstar Meghan Cohan.
And one day, when Laurel is at the restaurant early to get ready for the regular rush of customers, that’s exactly what she finds–Meghan dead in the Terminal freezer.
What’s a Hollywood A-lister doing in Hubbard, Ohio?
For Laurel, that’s the real question, because the first question she’d ask in any other murder investigation–who would want the victim dead?–seems pretty much a no-brainer in this case.
Who would want Meghan dead?
Just about anybody who had ever met her.
Release Date: Jun 26, 2018
Series: Ethnics Eats
Book: 3
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley
Price: $7.99
A year ago, Laurel Inwood left Hollywood, where she was a personal chef to the stars. Now she helps her aunt run a restaurant in the small town of Hubbard, Ohio. Laurel was able to keep the local diner afloat by adding a rotating menu of ethnic foods to the selection of comfort foods that have been a regular part of the diner’s offerings for years. Most of the new dishes have been a hit with customers, and the diner is doing well. The latest cuisine to be featured is Italian. Laurel is excited to debut the new foods, but then she sees her former celebrity boss, Meghan Cohan, there in the restaurant. Laurel’s worries over the woman’s motives for coming to town begin to put a damper on her excitement. When Meghan is found dead in the diner’s freezer, Laurel begins looking for someone who had a motive to kill the temperamental Meghan.
This is the third book in the Ethnic Eatsseries. I read the series debut but missed the book that came right before this one. However, I had no problems catching up with the main characters. Laurel is more settled into her new town and career in this installment, so I enjoyed it more than the first book when she was still mourning her old life. Laurel background as a foster child is somewhat complicated, but the main facts are given at the beginning and that’s all that’s needed to understand her character. Things she has gone through in her life have caused her to fear marriage, even though she is very much in love with her boyfriend attorney, Declan Fury, which could cause obstacles in their relationship.
Laurel’s investigation is interesting and because of the kind of person Meghan is, Laurel finds she has several suspects to investigate. I don’t want to spoil anything, but Laurel has to be the most forgiving employer ever after what she puts up with from one of the diner’s employees. It does show Laurel is a caring person, but her ease at forgiving the person for things done throughout the book is a little hard to believe. Overall, the book is well-written and I loved both the solution of the case and the unexpected ending of the book. I don’t know, but the way the final chapters read, this could be the final book in the series. Going along with the restaurant setting and featured cuisine, there are recipes for two different pasta dishes at the end. Fans of this series or of Kylie Logan’sother cozy mysteries will enjoy Italian Iced.
~ Christine
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