#FlashbackFriday – French Fried (An Ethnic Eats Mystery) by Kylie Logan #Review / #Giveaway @BerkleyMystery

Dollycas’s Thoughts 

Laurel Inwood has stayed in Ohio even though her Aunt Sophie is back to work. She has applied for a job as a private chef and hopes it will be her ticket out of town. Until then, Hubbard is celebrating the Statue of Liberty in its quest to bring more tourists to town and Sophie’s Terminal at the Tracks is serving up French cuisine. Sophie’s friend, a former French chef, Raquel “Rocky” Arnaud has shared some recipes and herbs from her garden to make the dishes as authentic as possible.

The city celebration also includes a parade, a signing by a French author, fireworks, and a Statue of Liberty expert will be speaking at the library. Rocky was excited to attend all the events, but she caused a scene at the bookstore and left the parade early. Then she failed to show up for the fireworks. Laurel and Declan are worried about her and with good cause. When they arrive at her little farm, Pacifique (Peaceful), there is loud music playing and Rocky dead in a chair with an open bottle of wine and an empty wine glass on the table next to her. The police arrive and as soon as poisoning is confirmed they decide it was a case of suicide. Both Laurel and Sophie know that can’t be the case. Declan in his efforts to protect Laurel attaches himself to her rogue investigation to prove Rocky was murdered and get Rocky the justice she deserves.

Oh, Kylie Logan has cooked us readers up a delicious story!!

I love the setting of Sophie’s restaurant and Declan’s store nearby. The unique little traintown is doing all it can to bring in business. Celebrating the 130th birthday of the Statue of Liberty, sure why not. It sets of the French theme of this installment of the series perfectly.

The characters are continuing to develop. It was wonderful to see Sophie’s improvement but that gives Laurel the boost to move on. Her coming to help Sophie is just a temporary arrangement. That is why she has worked to keep Declan at arm’s length. But Declan has other ideas. I love the way his whole family supports him in his pursuit of Laurel, even though she isn’t the Irish woman he claims to be looking for.

As for the mystery, it was so well written. I was totally floored when the actual killer was revealed. There were a few red herrings thrown into the pot that really changed things up. Even when Laurel started to really get a “picture” of the killer and revealed it out loud, I was like, “no, that can’t be right”. Then after the reveal, there was another little twist that again rocked me to my core, a shiver went right up my spine.

I so enjoyed the way the entire story flowed. The subplots melded nicely with the mystery and there were some surprises there too. Ms. Logan knows how to keep our attention for all 300+ pages and leaves us more than ready to rush into the next installment of this series. I am so excited to read Italian Iced! It will be released next week.