Tag: Reilly Linda

Restaurant owner Carly Hale Mitchell has to get her husband off the hook when he’s implicated in the suspicious death of a crooked coworker . . .

When the elderly owner of a historic mansion asks Carly to come visit and make one of her famous grilled cheese sandwiches, Carly can hardly say no. She loves spending time inside the fabled home, and she knows her husband will be at the grand old manse too, rewiring the electrical as part of larger renovations. But sparks fly when he gets into a shoving match with the contractor overseeing the project, and that puts him at the top of the suspect list when the contractor later falls to his death from the roof amid signs of foul play.

Desperate to clear her husband’s good name, Carly puts her restaurant work on the back burner while she tries to track down the real culprit. Thinking it must be someone on the renovation crew or an employee at the mansion, she begins grilling the suspects, only to learn that the victim had enemies throughout the community. Then another dead body is discovered at the mansion, and Carly has to approach the case from a whole new angle—just as the killer is angling to make her the next victim on their list . . .

Includes mouthwatering grilled-cheese sandwich recipes!

My Review:

Friendly Reader Suggestion: Have all the fixing for a grilled cheese sandwich on hand because this book will will stir up a craving and maybe some culinary creativity too! Love all the cozy vibes that come from Carly’s diner and loyal staff. Reilly has hit the perfect balance between cozy and mystery and I revelled in both.

An engaging mystery involving a recluse and some strange occurrences at her mansion. Spooky and fun and oh so puzzling. But, yay me, I figured parts of the mystery out before Carly and company. Not everything though, so I was still frantically trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together all the way to the end.

Love these characters, including a host of familiar faces that crop up in each book. There’s a real sense of found family, deepening relationships (friendship and otherwise) and I’m always eager to see what everyone is up to from one book to the next. As with most cozies, I think ‘The Grilled Cheese Mysteries’ are best read in order so that a reader can enjoy every delicious nuance of character and secondary plot development BUT, having said that, a newbie could jump in with this 7th book and still enjoy the read.

I listened to the audio edition narrated by Mia Gaskin who has been the voice of this series since the very beginning. She’s a perfect fit for these characters and I appreciate that continuity. We audio book listeners becomes as attached to our narrators as we do our authors!

My thanks to Dreamscape Media and Net Galley for providing me with an audio copy of this book.

When a fundraiser turns fatal, Carly Hale is confronted by a trail of clues that all point to her mother as the culprit . . .

When the local high school hosts a fundraiser, restaurant owner Carly Hale is happy to sign on and enlists her mother’s help selling her much-loved grilled cheese sandwiches at the school. But no good deed goes unpunished, and the vendor stationed next to them at the event turns out to be aggressively rude and bullies them both. Never one to be pushed, Carly’s mom gives the man a vicious tongue-lashing and assumes that’s the end of it—until later that day when the man is found dead, strangled with her scarf.

With her mom on the hook for murder, Carly has no choice but to find out who killed the man and why. It turns out the victim had always been bad news and had racked up a long list of enemies. One of those enemies may have been the menacing stranger Carly saw lurking on the edges of the fundraiser, but her intuition tells her the murdered man’s girlfriend may have been mixed up in it too. Certain one of them—or both—did the deadly deed, Carly realizes too late that all her sleuthing has landed her next on the killer’s hit list . . .

Includes tantalizing grilled-cheese sandwich recipes!

My Review:

Warning: reading this book may result in extreme grilled cheese cravings. Read at own risk. And I love that the author delights her readers with tantalizing adaptations of this classic sandwich staple. I had just as much fun reading about the ingenuous recipe ideas as I did following the mystery!

And that mystery — delightfully twisty-turny with plenty of suspects since the victim was so obnoxious! And, sadly, one of those suspects is Carly’s mom so…a girl sleuth has to do what a girl sleuth has to do! And this murder investigation couldn’t come at a worse time! Because Carly’s personal life is already complicated enough.

Love these characters and the growth we’ve seen in them all with each new book. The cozy aspects of this mystery are so heartwarming and comforting. Friends and family who always have your back. A cute rescue pup. The restaurant that’s like a second home to half the town. And, of course, the romance! Happy sigh!

The author has struck the perfect balance between cozy and mystery and both aspects of the story kept me frantically turning pages….well, avidly listening since I enjoyed the audio book narrated by the wonderful Mia Gaskin. She’s been the narrator for the entire series and I love that continuity. She has done a fantastic job with these characters which keeps me turning to the audio editions for my Grilled Cheese Mysteries fix.

My thanks to Dreamscape Media and Net Galley for providing me with an audio edition of this book.