When food critic Hayley Snow receives an intriguing email about a mysterious, decades-old disappearance, her curiosity is piqued. Writer Catherine Davitt has returned to the Keys to research a book about Hemingway’s wives, but she’s also on the hunt for the truth about her missing friend. Hayley quickly agrees to help investigate and they hit the road to see what clues they might find.
Back in the late 1970s, Catherine and her friend Veronica were part of a group of lost souls camping in the mangroves of Big Pine Key, until Veronica vanished, and the sheriff’s office cleared out the camp. Catherine and Hayley begin interviewing Big Pine Key residents who were around at the time of Veronica’s disappearance, but uncover more questions than answers.
Catherine and Hayley stop to speak with a motel owner who frequented the fringes of the commune, but they find him stabbed to death. Then Catherine also goes missing, and signs point to a connection between the old case and the new murder. It’s up to Hayley to unravel the knot of secrets and lies before time runs out. (Summary via Goodreads)
How can readers not enjoy a book centered around food and family and so much more ? The Key West Food Critic Mystery series by Lucy Burdette is just that and with A Poisonous Palate being the fourteenth book in the series, I think Burdette knows what she's doing.
In A Poisonous Palate main character Hayley Snow is enjoying life. She loves living on Houseboat Row with her husband, Police Lieutenant Nathan Bransford and their dog and cat. She loves living next door to her best friend and old roommate, Miss Gloria. She loves her job working for Key Zest e-zine visiting local eateries, sampling the food and writing about it. She loves spending time with her mother and her husband Sam. And she won't lie if asked if she enjoys solving a murder or two.
In A Poisonous Palate Hayley receives an email that she is about to delete but her curiousity gets the better of her and she reads it and is instantly intrigued. A woman Catherine is writing to her to help her try to find out what happened to a friend of her's that went missing over forty years ago. When the two where very young, they needed a change so they packed up a car and moved to Big Pine Key in Florida and met a bunch of other lost souls camping in an area and decided to pitch their tent for a while. Unfortunately Veronica ends up going missing and Catherine goes to the police to report it and doesn't get much help. Instead the police raid the camp and break it up.
Now all these years later Catherine is back and wants to find out what happened to her friend. She enlists the help of Hayley and the two venture down to Big Pine Key to see if they can find anything out. Sadly they discover one of the old camping crew stabbed to death in the hotel he owns which now piles on more questions.
Hayley doesn't know how much she can trust Catherine and knows that she isn't getting the entire story but knows she can't push her to talk. Plus Hayley really needs to focus on her job, her husband, her friend's upcoming wedding, and her family and friends. But we all know how Hayley is and once she is hooked, there is no turning back.
I thoroughly enjoy this series. It has a special place in my heart because on a visit to my mom in Florida I was reading one of the books in this series and she showed an interest and read it when I was done. We even made a yummy treat from one of the recipes from that book while I was there. Sadly I lost mom a few years ago and miss her every minute of every day but when I open one of the books in this series, I feel like she is reading over my shoulder. That is how books should be .... they make you feel. I hope the Key West Food Critic Mystery series holds a special place in your life .......
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