School Lunch is Murder (Sadie Sunshine Cozy Mystery #1) by Cheryl Zelenka

Sadie Sunshine lives in Rogue Valley, a small picturesque city in the Pacific Northwest. Recently retired from teaching, she is called back to work by a friend on maternity leave. Her dogs Willow-Cake and Bosco-Bill are not happy about her decision to return to work, letting her know they prefer her at home playing in their garden. When Sadie discovers a dead body on her first day subbing at Fort Follyfield, several interesting suspects quickly emerge from the woodwork. 
Love triangles, secrets, and holistic remedies calling for poisonous plants push up like daisies while she wrestles with unhappy parents and a domineering PTA President. 

Sadie’s expert, yet self-taught knowledge of garden plants, leads her down a path of danger, murder, and intrigue. While helping her best friend, officer Dora Flores, she connects clues and motives only to reveal a very deadly RAT.  (Summary via Goodreads)


What a cute and easy read !!!  Okay so yeah there was a murder but the setting and the people were great !!

How can you not like a book where the main character's name is Sadie SUNSHINE ??   And she lives in a small town with 2 dogs that talk to each other, her best friend is the police investigator and lives down the street, and the setting is in an elementary school ?

Sadie comes out of early-retirement to subsitute teach for her friend, Mandy.  Mandy is going out on maternity leave for 2 months and begs Sadie to teach her 3rd grade class in her absence.  Sadie relunctantly accepts only to find the other 3rd grade teacher dead on her classroom floor on her first day back ! ! !

Not to be a gossiper but to help out her best friend, Dora, with solving the case, she listens to other teachers, the librarian, and the President of the PTA.  And not knowing it she schedules a meeting with the actually killer !!!  Will she be next ? Or will Dora get the SOS message in time ?

I am a HUGE fan of Joyce and Jim Lavene (may they RIP) and my favorite book is The Tell Tale Turtle.  This book reminds me of The Tell Tale Turtle with Willow-Cake and Bosco-Bill talking to each other......
I am now a huge fan of Cheryl Zelenka and cannot wait for the next Sadie Sunshine book.....which I really want to read after  I read the tease at the end of School Lunch is Murder.

I really think you will enjoy this book and believe me you will read it fast ! ! !  

Review by Missi S.