I’m on the fence on how to rate this book. I liked it until about the last 30 pages. Then the murderer did something that can best be described as standing up and shouting “Well, hello, it’s me. Haven’t you figured that out yet?” I don’t like murderers that draw attention to themselves like that.

Hayley Snow, the food critic in series title, is a bit worked up: her mother-in-law is coming for an unexpected visit and she hasn’t met the woman yet (?!) Apparently, Mrs Bransford had reasons not to attend her son’s wedding. She’s cold and keeps her distance, until Hayley and she discover the dead body of a pastry chef on her porch. Helen Bransford becomes an active investigator and Hayley can’t help to keep up.

The pastry chef was new in town and caused a bit of a raucous at a presentation for a key lime pie contest. Hayley is writing about the contest for Key Zest magazine and figures one of the other contestant or the organiser is the murderer, because the new chef was too much competition in a town that already had too many bakers.

The story is well-written and pretty well plotted. I just didn’t like the reveal of the murderer.

The book includes recipes and I’m thinking of trying one out.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.