Six Feet Deep Dish (Deep Dish Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Wisconsin
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (August 23, 2022)
Mass Market Paperback : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 1250792436
ISBN-13 : 978-1250792433
Kindle ASIN : B09NKB5JTZ
Fresh mozzarella, tangy tomato sauce, and murder: the perfect recipe for a delicious first entry in Mindy Quigley’s Six Feet Deep Dish, a delectable new series…
Delilah O’Leary can’t wait to open her new gourmet deep-dish pizzeria in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin—a charming resort town with a long history as a mobsters’ hideaway, millionaires’ playground, and vacation mecca. Engaged to a hunk with a hefty trust fund, Delilah is poised to begin a life that’s just about as delicious as one of her cheesy creations.
Just before opening night, though, Delilah’s plans for pizza perfection hit the skids when her fiancé dumps her and leaves her with a very large memento from their relationship—Butterball, their spoiled, plus-sized tabby cat.
Delilah’s trouble deepens when she discovers a dead body and finds her elderly aunt holding the murder weapon. Handsome local police detective Calvin Capone, great grandson of the legendary gangster, opens an investigation, threatening to sink Delilah’s pie-in-the-sky ambitions before they can even get off the ground. To save her aunt and get her pizza place generating some dough, Delilah must deliver the real killer.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Delilah O’Leary has many fond memories of Geneva Bay, Wisconsin, so when her fiancé agrees to bankroll her dream of opening a gourmet deep-dish pizzeria she knows Geneva Bay is the perfect place. Plus her Aunt Biz has some health issues and Delilah wants to be nearby. She pulls inspiration for the restaurant’s decor from the mobster history of the town. Not everyone thinks that is a good idea so she hopes her idea doesn’t backfire.
On the night of a soft opening, the sign for the outdoor pizzeria arrives with an error that leads to a fight between Delilah and Sam. A fight that has Sam packing his bags and leaving Delilah in the sauce regarding the future of her dream pizza place and the future of her life if Sam truly leaves her, but for now she needs to serve her customers.
With all the things on her plate, the last thing she needs is any more trouble but this is just not her day. Her Aunt Biz wasn’t feeling well and her caregiver takes her outside for some fresh air. When they fail to return Delilah goes to look for them. She finds a horrific scene of a dead body and her aunt holding the murder weapon.
Enter hunky Detective Calvin Capone, yes he is related to that Capone. Delilah has more to worry about than if the detective thinks about her decor. She needs to find the real killer to save her Aunt Biz and her pizzeria.
I love starting a new cozy series and this one has the added delight of being set in my home state. I was thrilled that the author even got the dialogue and phrasing right. One character sounded just like my Aunt Evie. The descriptions of Wisconsin hit home too.
Speaking of characters, Delilah is very OCD and a little harsh, making her a hard protagonist to like. She has friends working with her but she is a very difficult boss. Her fiancé Sam is a trust fund guy without a care in the world. His laid-back attitude is tolerated by Delilah until it isn’t, yeah the fight. I didn’t really care for him either. Aunt Biz is a treasure. But it is Butterball that gets all my love and steals the show. He is one spoiled kitty and he has the body to show it. The author introduces a lot of characters right off the bat. Some are a bit more fleshed out than others, all have plenty of room to grow and maybe in Delilah’s case a little nicer.
The mystery was intriguing but not very complex. Detective Capone warned Delilah several times to leave the investigation to him but Delilah was basically having clues dropped in her lap. I plucked each one out right away and solved the mystery pretty early in the story. I was a little put off by Delilah’s daydreaming about the detective. It made her come off even more fickle than when the story started. I have learned it is hard to have a very complex mystery in the first book of a series because all the characters have to be introduced and the world-building needed to define the locale fills many pages.
I really enjoyed the gourmet pizzas that were created and their descriptions. I was craving pizza from the first page to the last. Recipes are included at the end of the book including the correct way to make a deep-dish pizza.
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About the Author
MINDY QUIGLEY has won a number of awards for her short stories, including the 2013 Bloody Scotland prize and the 2018 Lightbringer award. Originally from Chicago, she possesses a naturally sophisticated pizza palate. Her desert island pizza choice would be Lou Malnati’s “Deep Dish Lou” or an Aurelio’s thin-crust with spinach, tomatoes, and black olives. She lives in Virginia with her history professor husband, their two children, and their miniature Schnauzer.
Coming April 25, 2023
Also by Mindy Quigley
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
