Through NetGalley, I received a free copy of A DISH TO DIE FOR (A Key West Food Critic Mystery Book 12), by Lucy Burdette, in exchange for an honest review. Hayley Snow is drawn into another murder investigation when she finds another body, and the prime suspect asks her to investigate shortly before being attacked and hospitalized. To make matters more difficult, Nathan's father is in town and finally ready to meet Hayley. I liked this book and enjoyed the series. I recommend!

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This was a fun, cute cozy mystery! I love the theme throughout, and I will definitely be continuing with the series.

This book is my introduction to
A Key West Food Critic Mystery Series. I can definitely relate to the characters and their interests/love of food. I think this book was written very well. The combination of good characters, mystery, and storytelling made this book a cozy read for me.

My thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGallery for a digital copy of this book for my review!

This is the twelfth book in the Key West Food Critic Mystery series featuring Hayley Snow.
Hayley recently married Nathan Bransford. Nathan is a Key West police detective.

Nathan’s dog stumbles across a dead body on another island in the Keys. GG Garcia, the dead body, is a not very nice real estate developer. Hayley’s mom is asked to cater her funeral so Hayley and Miss Gloria are able to collect information during the event. While Hayley is an amateur detective, she collaborates with the local police to help solve this murder.

It is always interesting when family members come to town. In this one, Nathan’s estranged father comes to town. Hayley is not quite sure what to think of him. This is her first time meeting him.

There are lots of food descriptions, locations in the Keys and old vintage cookbooks. I love this series. Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane books for the free Advanced Reader’s Copy. I gave this mystery 4 and a half stars. I definitely recommend this book and this series, but you do need to have read some of the previous books to enjoy it to the fullest.

Lucy Burdette knows the Key West area very well and it shows in her books. I hope to visit the area sometime.

I think this one is more a case of "it's not you, book - it's me"

It could be be ause it was book 12 in the series, it could be my covid-fogged rain, but I just couldn't really get into this one.

It was good enough that I read to the end, but I didn't really feel anything for any of the characters, at all.

So I won't say anything more than I think this was more the time and circumstances, and I think lots of others will really enjoy it

A Dish to Die For by Lucy Burdette is book #12 in the Key West Food Critic Mystery series. This was an interesting read. The murder victim was very unlikable and I could understand why there would be a good number of suspects for his murder. It was nice to visit Key West. The main characters did a good job solving the mystery. I have to say though that this wasn't one of my favorites in this series.

This was a fun cozy mystery set in Key West. I enjoyed reading about the places in Key West, and the characters were likeable. This is a series, and after I finished this book I ended up reading another of the books in the series.

I reviewed this title for Mystery Scene Magazine Fall issue, please check when that issue released to read my entire review

Overall, I enjoyed the Florida atmosphere, the island setting and the food-related background of the main character.
However the investigation didn't take me in, but it might have been partially due to the fact I had just finished an Agatha Christie book, so it suffered an untimely comparison.
On a side note, I'm not a fan of all these quotes at the beginning of each paragraph. But regardless, it's something like book 12 in the series so it's a rather popular one!

Haley, the Key West Food Critic series protagonist, is involved in another murder case after the dog finds a body on the beach. Who did it?! As Haley writes for the Key Zest magazine in her small Florida community, her husband and intertwining food and murder while working on her marriage.


Another solid addition to the series!

When I started reading this mystery I didn't realize it was #12 in the series. This was my first Lucy Burdette book. It was an entertaining cozy whodunnit. The core cast of characters were endearing and I think I'd like to go back read the eleven books before this one.

I'm happy Hayley is back to Florida as it's the best setting for this cozy mystery series. This was another highly entertaining and gripping mystery that kept me guessing.
I loved the descriptions of the food and was happy to catch up with the characters.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The setting is a big reason I love reading Lucy Burdette books. The description of the location is so beautiful. The foods cooked make me salivate. She provides just the right amount of tension among the characters. I also like that the characters are based on real life kw characters!

This book is 12th in the Key West Food Critic mystery series, featuring Haley Snow who writes for the Key Zest magazine.
This cozy is a clever combination of lovely Florida settings, a small community of interesting characters, pet dogs, and of course lovely food.
Fans of the series will delight in the continuity characters who have their own subplots and interests, but it does take a while for the author to get over the exposition of who is who before the murder plot kicks in.

'A Dish to Die For' is a lovely cozy and well up to the standards Lucy Burdette has previously set. I enjoy the visits to Key West and the recipes provided in the Key West Food Critic Mystery series. Lots of things happened in this latest addition not the least of which was Hayley meeting Nathan's father for the first time. The inclusion of a vintage cookbook and the pattern of relationships all made for a story I can highly recommend. I look forward to more.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This book is 12th in the mystery series. So it definitely feels like a lot has happened in our protagonist's past. But the author does a decent job bringing along relevant details that you feel that you have known the character for long. Since it is a cozy mystery, I didn't really care about crazy twists and turns.

Title: A Dish to Die For (A Key West Food Critic Mystery series)
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Release Date: August 9, 2022

Hayley Snow is enjoying some beach time with her friends, both two-legged and four-legged, when her beloved dog digs up a surprise gift in the sand - a dead body! As an amateur sleuth, Haley is drawn into the mystery. Who could have this this? And why? Can clues to a current crime be found in the past?

An interesting and easy to read cozy mystery. It's book 12 in the series, but I was able to following along just fine.

Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias or favor or expectation.

Local Key West food critic Haley finds herself involved in another murder case when her detective husband's dog digs up a body on the beach. Haley is interviewed by local authorities and soon finds herself aiding in finding the murderer. Along the way, Haley continues to write her food column, work on her marriage, get to know her father-in-law, and earn a promotion at the local paper. Haley is a strong protagonist whose thinking clearly add to the finding of the guilty party. The setting of Key West adds much to the story. Looking forward to the next in this series.

Hayley Snow is a food critic for Key Zest magazine in Key West. She lives on a houseboat with her policeman husband, next door to her octogenarian best friend, Miss Gloria. For the most part, she loves food, she loves to write about food, and she tries to stay out of the trouble that tends to find her. Take this time, for instance, when she and her canine companion, Ziggy, spend a day with friends only to stumble upon a recently deceased man.

GG Garcia wasn't the most likeable man. He had a magnetism about him (just ask the many women seduced by him), but he wasn't a nice guy. Besides forgetting on a daily basis he was married, he was also a developer that didn't care what it took to make his money. It came as no surprise when he turned up dead. The problem is, with so many possibilities, how do they determine who took him out?

Hayley has a deadline and an intimidating father-in-law to meet, so the last thing she wants to do is get involved with yet another murder investigation, but recent circumstances, and those who encourage her to play amateur sleuth, have other plans.

A Dish to Die For by Lucy Burdette is the twelfth book in the Key West Food Critic Mystery series, but it can easily be read as a standalone. Burdette does a fairly seamless job of bringing readers up to speed on many people, places and plotlines that Hayley has been involved with in the past without making you feel as though you've missed out on anything. It just might, however, succeed in enticing you to go back and start at the beginning.

This is a Cozy Mystery, so don't expect too much by way of thrills and chills. It's extremely tame and has the cozy prerequisites of quirky neighbors, ties to the police, "that would never happen" scenarios that allow the protagonist to actually be involved in the case, and comfortable surroundings. I will add the caveat of you don't want to read this one if you're hungry. There's a lot of talk about food, obviously, and it all sounds pretty amazing.

There are some great recipes included, but better than that are the backstories about them. To top that off is the story of what inspired this book. A vintage cookbook plays a big part, and it's based on one that the author actually did find. She even incorporates sections of it. Some of the characters are also inspired by real life, and several places exist in Key West. This type of information fascinates me, so it was an added bonus.

A Dish to Die For was a quick and easy read. The culprit wasn't horribly difficult to figure out, but that's okay if you're a cozy afficionado. It's more about the setting, the people and the relationships that develop that make them what they are.

I just finished Lucy Burdette’s newest book, A Dish to Die For in the Key West Food Critic cozy mystery series. I loved it! I couldn’t read fast enough, and I didn’t want it to end.

It’s always a pleasure to visit Key West again and see what Hayley and her pals are up to. Taking an afternoon off for a picnic on the beach with her psychologist friend Eric and her husband’s dog, Haley stumbles over a body buried in the sand. Just after finding the body, a bird watcher happens upon the scene and identifies the buried man as GG Garcia, a controversial Key West resident. Garcia was a womanizer, a rabble-rouser, and an all-around unlikeable man, so enemies abound.

A few days later, the birdwatcher is attacked and hospitalized, and he wants Hayley to look deeper into the murder. Hayley has her hands full with her writing, helping her caterer mother with food for Garcia’s memorial service, and now entertaining her husband’s estranged father. She also discovers a long ago hidden Woman’s Club cookbook, and secrets spill out from the past that have relevance in Garcia’s murder.

As always, I enjoyed my visit to Key West in this book, but I have to admit I was taken aback with the mentions of how life has changed for Hayley and her friends from the Pandemic. I’ve been reading Cozies as fast as I can, and this is the second book that mentions life post-Pandemic. I was able to get past it, but thought I would mention it for other readers so they are aware it’s mentioned in the book.

The author has created a wonderful cast of characters who read as real people, coming alive in my head as I delve into the books. They are people I’d love to hang out with, especially when they go along with Hayley to try out restaurants. I’ve never been to Key West personally, but I always feel as if I’m there while I read. I can almost smell the suntan lotion, the salt air, and the delicious food that Hayley talks about!

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for letting me read the book!

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