Smothered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Publisher: D. X. Varos, Ltd. (February 16, 2021)
Paperback: 258 pages

Synopsis

Alene Baron doesn’t go looking for mysteries, they find her. When the highly disliked owner of a business neighboring the Whipped and Sipped Cafe turns up dead, the list of potential suspects is pretty long, including all of the members of his quarrelsome family. Missing wills, convenient accidents, and enough red herring to feed the lunch crowd spice up this tantalizing tale. As always, while pondering the evidence, Alene also comes up with creative vegan dishes to serve her customers and share with you.

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Review

Alene is back with her vegetarian/vegan cafe and coffeehouse, a cast of intriguing characters, and a mystery that you may or may not be able to solve before all is revealed.

I’m thankful that the author provides a list of characters at the beginning of the book with a brief bio on each one because there are many characters to keep straight! If you have read the first book, Battered, you will recognize many from that book, but there are many new characters to make this mystery interesting. There are characters that will make you crazy, some that you will empathize with, and others that you will love.

There are quite a few storylines in this book. There is the murder, disappearance of one of the staff from the cafe, Alene’s father’s stay in the hospital, and the budding romance between Alene and Frank.

There are quite a few red herrings in the book and I never would have suspected the killer. There are a few clues peppered throughout the book, but not many. Alene jumps to a lot of conclusions and never quite gets it right until the end and thankfully doesn’t put herself in too much danger.

I think my favorite character might be Cal, Alene’s father. He is suffering from a debilitating disease but has such a great outlook on life and what he is going through.

I do enjoy the Chicago setting and based on what I read, it sounds like most everything for Alene is close to where she lives and I feel like I am able to take a peek into her world.

This is a fun new series and we give it 4 paws up.

About the Author

G.P. Gottlieb has worked as a musician, a teacher, and an administrator, but she’s happiest when writing recipe-laced murder mysteries. Battered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery and Smothered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery take place in the spring and summer of 2019 and a third book in the series will center on a murder that occurs during the city of Chicago’s lockdown in May 2020. G.P. Gottlieb has always experimented in the kitchen and created her delicious vegan cookies and cakes in direct opposition to what she learned in courses at Chicago’s French Pastry School. She is a host for New Books in Literature, a podcast channel on the New Books Network, the mother of three grown children, and lives with her husband in a Chicago high-rise that is strikingly similar to the building portrayed in the Whipped and Sipped Mystery series.

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