#4 in the Food Lover’s Village Mystery

Summary

The tourist season in Jewel Bay, Montana is starting with a Jazz Festival, but the night after the kick-off performance, Gerry Martin falls to his death from a path above the Jewel River. Erin had witnessed some tension between Gerry and his bandmates at the concert, and her boyfriend’s best friend, Tanner, is pretty sure he saw someone pushing Martin off the cliff. Bad news surrounding the festival will certainly be bad news for the town, so Erin decides to help out the police with a little sleuthing of her own.

My Thoughts

This is another well-crafted mystery with excellent pacing and a satisfying conclusion in a series that has quickly become one of my favorites.

The Characters

This series has such satisfying, well-rounded characters.

Erin believes that to make a community thrive, it’s important for people to support one another. Because of that, she is willing to jump in and help people out, even though she admits to herself that she doesn’t always want to do it. That makes her such a real and relatable character.

I also love Erin’s commitment to helping victims receive justice. She doesn’t back away, even when she’s scared and even when it would be the easy thing to do.

What Else I Liked

• I always put down the books in this series feeling hungry! Fortunately, there are some tasty looking recipes in the back of the book.

• It’s rhubarb season in Montana at the time of the Jazz Festival, and rhubarb is a favorite of mine. I love the recipe for rhubarb custard pie at the end of the book.

• For me, mysteries are a way to escape from real world issues for a few hours at a time, but Leslie Budewitz is exceptionally skillful at maintaining the cozy culinary vibe while not entirely shying away from the real world. This book draws attention to the very real poverty that exists in so many tourist destinations.

• In this book the author finally killed a character to whom I hadn’t developed an emotional attachment. (Thank you!)

• Even the book dedication was thoughtful. 

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About the Author

Photo Credit: Brenda Ahearn

Leslie Budewitz blends her passion for food, great mysteries, and the Northwest in two cozy mystery series, the Spice Shop mysteries set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody suspense, beginning with BITTERROOT LAKE and continuing with BLIND FAITH. A three-time Agatha-Award winner (for Best Nonfiction, Best First Novel, and Best Short Story), she is a past president of Sisters in Crime and board member of Mystery Writers of America. She lives in NW Montana.

(From Leslie’s website https://www.lesliebudewitz.com/media)

You can learn more about Leslie on her website lesliebudewitz.com. She maintains a really entertaining blog there and you can sign up for her newsletter.

Leslie also writes on the Mystery Lovers Kitchen blog, where you can find some pretty amazing recipes!

My review of the second in this series – Crime Rib

My review the third in this series – Butter off Dead