Varietats: Death On The Menu by Lucy Burdette

Hayley Snow, fiery food critic for Key Zest magazine, has just landed a ticket to one of the most prestigious events in Key West: a high-brow three-day conference at the Harry Truman Little White House. Even though she’ll be working the event helping her mother’s fledgling catering business, there’s plenty of spicy gossip to go around. But just before her mother’s decadent flan is put to the test, Key West’s most prized possession, Hemingway’s Nobel prize gold medal for The Old Man and the Sea, is discovered stolen from its case.

Unsavory suspicions point to Gabriel, a family friend and one of the new busboys working the event, who mysteriously goes missing moments later. Anxious to clear his name, Gabriel’s family enlists Hayley to help find him, but right as they begin their search, his body is found stabbed to death in the storeroom.

Hayley has no shortage of suspects to interrogate and very little time before the killer adds another victim to the menu in national bestselling author Lucy Burdette’s delectable eighth Key West Food Critic mystery, Death on the Menu.

Hayley Snow has decided to help her mother with her catering business in a big event at the Harry Truman White House, and even when her boyfriend, a quite handsome detective, advise her that is not a good idea, she can not stay out of trouble and of course, decide to participate in the event. But, the trouble will be waiting there, of course! ;)

When the gold medal from the famous writer Ernest Hemingway disappear, the first suspect is one of the helpers of Hayley for the event, but he is a family friend too, so she will try to help him, of course! But this will not be a normal case, politics are involved in this mysterious case, because the medal has a high money value, but the political price is really high too, so it's a simply robbery or someone wants to keep it for themselves?

It was interesting how this book explored the relation between Cuba and America, all their problems and how each part saw the other. But let me say something, both of them had their guilty part, maybe one day they would accept their mutual responsibility in the conflict.

Of course Ernest Hemingway's life will be discussed and explored, he was a great writer, but he was human and had his own problems and faults, I will not take a side on this, there are a lot of biographies to read if you want to know more about him and decide what do you think of the human behind the great writer.

I was quite interested in Hayley's love problems, not only because there had a big part of the plot, but because she confronts them and instead of keeping the doubts by herself, she talks with Nathan about them and tries to discover why she feels the way she feels and unravel if she is being fair or seeing things that are not there. I will not tell you what will be the result of the confrontation, you will have to read the book if you want to know more.

I liked the story, it was complex and quite interesting, but sometimes it was too much descriptive and too many characters on it, but clearly this is simply an opinion. The mystery is original and surprising and let me say that there are some delicious recipes to try at the end of the book!

Lucy Burdette is the author of the national best-selling Key West food critic mysteries, a cozy, culinary mystery series starring food critic Hayley Snow. The 8th book in the series, DEATH ON THE MENU, will be published by Crooked Lane Books on August 7, 2018.

Lucy's alter-ego Roberta Isleib has written the golf lover's mystery series (SIX STROKES UNDER) and the advice column mysteries (DEADLY ADVICE.) Lucy (aka Roberta) is a clinical psychologist who loves using her background in her stories. She also loves to cook and to eat and to talk and write and read about food!

Death On The Menu by Lucy Burdette - Blog Tour