Murder on the Menu

This was a cutie-pie of a cozy. I could be friends with these two girls, probably Eve more so than Annie. Eve is sweet and funny and goofy, even being a hottie and all. Annie is wound a little too tight with her organizational skills and worries, but still is a good person at heart and wants to help Eve figure out who killed their friend Sarah. Yes, the police had deemed it a suicide after seeing the scene and finding a note, but Eve and Annie find little clues that lead them to believe something else happened. That led smoothly into their investigation, which I always appreciate in an amateur sleuth mystery.
I liked the atmosphere of the restaurant scenery and the characters are nicely drawn. Sometimes the action happened a little too show more co-ink-ee-dink-a-lee, like making kitchen-phobic Annie work one night helping the chef when one of the assistants was out of commission with a bad reaction to putting green dye in his hair, but the story moved along and all was accomplished in a timely manner.
I liked the ending with the 'whoa, did not see that one coming' tweak.
All in all, I look forward to reading the rest of the series and seeing what happens to my buds, Annie, Eve and Jim and Bellywashers the restaurant.
Four sparkly kitchen diamonds...... show less

Annie Capshaw is working both full-time at a bank and at nights helping her on and off again boyfriend Jim MacDonald get his restaurant "Bellywashers" up and running. The last thing she needs is to discover the dead body of a friend. The police say it was suicide but Annie and her friend Eve aren't so sure and begin to look into Sarah's death. They soon discover that there are any number of people that wanted Sarah dead. The more Annie and Eve investigate, the more they become targets.

"Murder on the Menu" is the well-done second book in Miranda Bliss's Cooking Class cozy mystery series (the first was Cooking Up Murder). The characters are all developing nicely, especially Annie. She is still dealing with the consequences of a divorce show more that left her with such low self-esteem that she is afraid to get seriously involved with Jim. By the end of the book she took a major and welcome step forward in her life that made her a deeper character. Eve is another great character - blonde, beautiful, a bit ditzy, but a major asset to Annie when solving the mystery. Jim wasn't as major a character in this book, but he's there when Annie needs him. The restaurant elements are extremely well done and believable. The murder elements are well written and well plotted, with just a handful of suspects, but a few red herrings set up some nice plot twists to keep readers guessing.

"Murder on the Menu" is a delicious cozy mystery show less

In this second book of the series, Annie Capshaw, along with her best friend Eve, is helping to run Bellywashers, a restaurant owned by her former cooking class instructor, Jim. Eve runs into an old friend, Sarah who works for a Senator with ambitions to be the next President. Annie and Eve go to Sarah's apartment to meet for dinner and find her dead in the bathtub, an apparent suicide. But Eve doesn't believe it and eventually persuades Annie to investigate with her.

This is a fun cozy series. I always love when they involve food and murder. Annie is very cautious and Eve is over-the-top so they make for a nice combo. One thing I especially like is that there are a lot of suspects to choose from. Some cozies only have a couple and it show more makes it too obvious who the killer is.

Cozies make for great summer reading, so check out this series.

my rating 3/5 show less

Murder on the Menu" is the delightful follow up to the first Cooking School Mystery "Cooking Up Murder" by Miranda Bliss. As with the first book, the series strength lies with its fun main characters, Annie and Eve. Eve especially is a delight here as teh beautiful, somewhat dingy blonde barbie doll who falls in love and creates havoc with a rare breed and expensive dog. The murder of that dog's owner is teh primary plot line here. Apparently Eve's friend Sarah has been making some big bucks...bigger than her salary working for a DC senator. When Sarah is found dead of an apparent suicide, Annie and Eve set off to prove this suicide isn't what it seems. The girls have to doge some "bullets" after the killer finds out they are onto his show more (or her) trail and soon they are neck deep into political corruption and adultrous affairs. While the mystery wasn't too easy to solve, it was just as much fun to follow Annie and Eve's antics. The mystery isn't very deep or involved and the story sometimes moved a tad slow for my liking, cozy mystery fans should find something to enjoy here. show less

This was a light read. The fact that it took me to long to finish it says something, but I'm glad for an intro to the series (although it's #2 in the Cooking Class series.) Two stars here isn't a bad "okay," but an okay "okay." I guess I was looking for a little more about actual cooking classes. :)

Another good read in the Cooking Class series. Annie & Eve's friend ends up getting murdered and of course they don't believe it is a suicide. So through a series of events, they investigate and find out that Sarah was murdered --- but you will have to read the book to find out the details.