Customer Reviews

Recipe for Trouble (Five Star Mystery Series) (Five Star Mystery Series) (Five Star First Edition Mystery)

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Pine County Sheriff Cas Larkin is concerned when local celebrity Mattie Carrington's kitchen explodes several minutes after she and her sister Katie leave home. Mattie and Katie are cousins of Miss Mayme and Miss Minnie Anderson, the two sisters who run their small town's floral shop. However, Cas's instincts kick into high gear when he learns that Mattie has had several accidents in the near past and had planned to be home the day of the explosion. When Mattie leases a lakeside cabin in their county to finish a cookbook she is writing, Cas makes it a point to keep check on her. During one of his visits, he finds Mattie unconscious and takes her to the hospital, where the doctor discloses she has been poisoned. All eyes point to Miss Minnie, the last person to visit Mattie, but Cas has other suspicions.

Fans of this series will feel as if they are spending time with old friends and new readers will quickly fall under the spell of all the warm characters in this sequel to The Nelson Scandal, from Cas's wife Connie, the perpetual matchmaker, to Miss Mayme and Miss Minnie and several others. Griffey enfolds the reader in an engaging mystery that takes place in a charming locale, with spine-tingling suspense, a demented killer, and more than a few charismatic characters, including a psychic and faith healer.

In Pine County, Tennessee, author Mattie Carrington plans to write a cookbook, but before she can escape to her hideaway cabin, the house she shares with her sister Katie explodes. Not long after that incident in which no one was hurt, but damage to the kitchen occurred; Mattie is rushed to the hospital poisoned in what appears to have been caused by a relative as no one else had access to the writer.

County Sheriff Cas Larkin investigates the poisoning, but finds the sisters' attorney Laurence Fields in his way as the latter tries to protect the Carrington siblings and their cousins Connie and Mayne Anderson, who are the prime suspects. Still refusing to allow anyone from preventing him from doing his job, Cas keeps digging while insuring the Carrington sisters are safe because he believes a very resolute killer wants Mattie dead although the motive remains a mystery.

RECIPE FOR TROUBLE is an interesting regional cozy starring several female relatives and a male sheriff trying to keep them safe. Fans who prefer action will pass on Jackie Griffey's tale that focuses more on a deep look at the interrelationships between the four females, even for instance when the house explodes. Cas is terrific once his police procedural investigation starts but the targeted audience is more for those who appreciate a family drama with late suspense from someone trying to kill the author.

Harriet Klausner

Maryvale, Tennessee is a cross between Andy Griffith's Mayberry, North Carolina and Burt Reynolds' Evening Shade, Arkansas - only smaller. Daily life moves from the sheriff's office to the flower shop to the diner to the library, and back again. Griffey takes her time setting up this gently told tale, writing with humor and affection.

We meet Sheriff Cas Larkin, who is suspicious when accidents happen to people with money. His wife, Connie, is a born matchmaker who freelances as a typist.

There are two sets of sisters. Miss Mayme and Miss Minnie are retired schoolteachers who now own a florist shop. Their cousin, Mattie Carrington, is a well-known cookbook author who once worked as an investment banker. She lives with her younger sister, Katie, who works in the bookstore. Katie keeps company with Eugene Austin, who gets on Mattie's nerves because he hovers.

Mattie, who's cranky even when she's in a good mood, decides to lease a secluded lakeside cabin to work on her third book. But first she takes a tumble down the stairs, then her kitchen explodes. The sheriff quietly begins to investigate the explosion and checks out the location of the cabin Mattie has leased.

The villain is not hard to spot. It becomes a question of when and how he will make his move. Mattie's poor sense of smell is almost her undoing. The action kicks into high gear during investigations, both official and private, with the ambitious young prosecuting attorney pressing for an arrest. There are surprises in store before justice is done. RECIPE FOR TROUBLE was just my cup of cocoa on a rainy day.