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!

#CrookedLaneBooks
#NetGalley

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This book is number 12 in her series!  A BIG congratulations to the author for having a series continue over 12 books!  Anyway,  I read the first book not long ago and I loved it. It is a cute cozy mystery set in Key West which isn't far from where I live!! I haven't read books 2-11 yet but I can say that they dont need to be read in order. Winning!!

Hayley is the main character and she is still just as likeable in this book as she was in the first one. AND she includes recipes at the end! Yummy!

Also, she used real names of real police officers of KWPD. How neat is that!?! If she ever needs to talk to someone who works for the sheriffs office I can help with that 😉

I also want to buy this series and have Lucy sign them!  Okay, enough gushing 😉

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🥧 you enjoy books that involve food. YUMMY!
🥧 you like Key West
🥧 cozy mysteries are your jam (see what I did there 😁)
🥧 you like stories about a cute girl who happens to be able to solve murders

I'd recommend this book and mark it is as a BUY on the scale of Buy, Bargain, Borrow, Bud (audio) or Bust.  (And yes I came up with the scale. I'm oddly proud of it!)

Thanks to Netgalley and Lucy Burdette for allowing me to read this book as an ARC.

A dish to Die for is the 12th book in the Key West Food Critic Mystery series, but for me it's the first one I read. First thing I noticed it how easy you can read this book as a stand alone. I did not feel at all like I was missing story lines or feel like I didn't understand how certain relationship worked or who was who, so that is a bis plus.

Hayley Snow, food critic for Key Zest magazine, is taking some afternoon time off for lunch with a friend. When she comes back home she finds Ziggy, husband Nathan's dog, missing. She followes his barking only to find him digging up a man's body! A local bird watcher Davis Jager tells her it is GG Garcia, a Key West local and developer. Soon Davis Jager finds himself suspect number 1 and seeks Hayley's help for clearing his name. Haylay soon digs into history to uncover some unpleasant revelations on GG Garcia and his family.

I really enjoyed this book a lot! I never expected the killer to be this person but the reasoning why.... I don't condone it, but I understand. This book made me want to read the rest of the books which is something as I am normally not the biggest Food Cozy lover. So I would certainly recommend this one!!

What a ride in Key West!

Florida Keys idyllic setting 👏
Mystery 👏
Plot twists 👏
Foodie descriptions 👏

I came across this author while visiting a book store in Key West on my honeymoon, she was featured as an author with the local setting. You can count on turning the pages and feeling the local flavour of the area - pun intended. I have since purchased two of her other books for the next time I am in the mood for that Florida Keys feeling.

I received my copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Peace and quite are hard to find in bustling Key West so Haley Snow food critic for Key Zest magazine is taking an afternoon off to have lunch with a friend outside of time. As they enjoy lunch she realizes her husbands dog Ziggy has disappeared. She follows his barking to find him digging at a shallow grave with a man’s body in it. A local birdwatcher identified him as GG Garcia a rabble rousing Key West local and developer. He was known as a womanizer and refused to follow city rules. It’s no wonder he had a few enemies. Haley’s mom has been hired to cater GG’s memorial service reception at the local Woman’s Club and Haley and Miss Gloria sign on to work with her hoping to find some clues by observing the mourners. Real clues appear when Hayley studies the old cookbook as old secrets come to life, dragging the past into the present with murderous results. A very enjoyable story with fun characters and a fast based storyline. Very enjoyable I recommend to everyone.

I thought this cozy could have been a little bit more exciting. The intrigue level was low, although it was entertaining. The name and the cover of this book suggested it would be a captivating one. Sadly, my expectation never manifested.

Haley Snow who seems to find dead bodies without even trying is back. Another adventurous trip to Key West, Florida.
Haley is adjusting to married life with Nathan. She goes on a picnic which is to be relaxing. Well, that wax the plan, until Ziggy starts to dig up more than the sand dunes.
Along with her sidekick Miss Gloria, Haley gets involved in more than she bargained for. Nathan's dad also has arrived in town.
Local cuisine, mystery and fur babies make this a fun cozy.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Haley Snow is a food writer based in Key West. She writes about all the Keys have to offer. One day she discovers a body on the beach and is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Is there a connection between her world of food and his death?
Great read.

Plot:: 5
Characters:: 5
Writing:: 5
Cover:: 5
Title: 5


Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the eARC of A DISH TO DIE FOR.

Perhaps the dish refers to a recipe that Hayley finds in an cookbook that was written in 1949 by a Women's Club in Key West, Florida? it was fun trying to figure out what the title referred to.

Hayley and her new husband are back home in Florida after an honeymoon in Scotland (see the previous novel A SCONE OF CONTENTION.

Hayley and the family dog are walking with a family friend when Ziggy the dog finds a dead body! A birdwatcher identifies the dead body as Gerald Garcia "GG" who has been steamrolling and destroying nature in order to develop. I thought like King Midas that Garcia ruins everything he touched. The birdwatcher worries that he is suspected as the killer when someone attacks him a few days later. The suspects pile up.

Meanwhile Hayley's new father in law is in town for a surprise visit. Hayley and her feisty neighbor Miss Gloria find clues to who the killer is. Hayley is helping her mother cater a party at the mansion where the Women's Club is and finds an old box with recipes and drawings. The box holds clues to who the killer is. I loved the ending. I found myself having sympathy for whoever killed GG because he was horrid to women. He treated his wife horribly. He did not care who he hurt. The suspects ranged from his wife to his ex business partner to many other suspects.

The scenes between Miss Gloria and Hayley's father in law are hilarious. There are humorous scenes throughout the novel.

This cozy mystery was wonderful with so many red herrings and I appreciated that the violence was off the camera.

While enjoying lunch at the beach with a friend, Hayley Snow's dog Ziggy uncovers a man's body in a shallow grave. The body is identified as GG Garcia by local birdwatcher Davis Jager. As Garcia is a developer of the Keys and a womanizer, he had a few enemies. Stakes are raised when Jager is attacked. When Hayley's mother is hired to cater GG's memorial service reception, it allows Hayley to observe attendees on the suspect list. Is GG's murder tied to the past or present as old secrets come to life.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy.

A dish to die for is the 12th book in the A Key West Food Critic Mystery series. I discovered this series last year right before my husband and I traveled to Key West for 1st time. I was literally seeing the locations the series had while on vacation. I thought that was cool.

Hayley Snow is a food critic for Key Zest magazine. She has really found herself here in Key West from when I read the first book. I like how she has developed and I do like her friends there that she has found since moving to Key West.

Her dog finds a body in a shallow grave and the body is identified as developer GG Garcia, a Key West local. All sorts of shenanigans happen as she sleuths. Can Haley find the guilty party or will she be next?

It was a fun cozy mystery. I received a free copy from NetGalley and this is an honest review.

Haley Snow and her penchant for finding dead bodies is back in action again and has us all longing for a visit to the Florida Keys in spite of her knack for uncovering the recently dead! I love this series as it paints such a vivid picture of life in the keys and makes me long for a visit there. The characters are so well developed that you feel like you are hanging out with old friends rather than just reading another book. An intriguing plot with twists and turns to keep you guessing while weaving in Haley's regular life and interactions in a seamless manner make for hours of entertainment. Haley wasn't my favorite character after the first book, but I am so glad that I kept with the series as her growth and that of the other characters have made them even more realistic. I absolutely can't wait to see what the next book has in store for us and Haley's additional duties at the magazine!

Haley Snow tries to spend a leisurely afternoon with a friend and their dogs. The leisure ends when her dog digs up a body on the beach. Haley keeps telling herself that this investigation is for the police to handle, but she can't help but ask a few questions. Surprisingly, she finds some answers in an old cookbook created by the local women's club a half century earlier.

Release Date: August 9, 2022

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Hayley Snow has a knack for trouble. She’s fresh off her honeymoon with her husband, detective Nathan Bransford when Nathan’s dog finds a partially covered body. This time it’s outside of Nathan’s jurisdiction. The victim was not well liked and the suspect list keeps growing. When the other person who saw the body is attacked Halley fears for her safety. Along with the delightful Miss Gloria, Hayley sets out to solve this mystery because she becomes any more apart of it.

This is the 12th(!) book in the #keywestfoodcriticmysteries series. I did feel like I was missing some backstory but the author did a good job of trying to explain the inside jokes from previous books. It was very slow in places and actually took me a while to get through. It was a good book but I won’t be re reading.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

#bookstagram #netgalleyreads #bookrecommendations #adishtodiefor #lucyburdette #keywestfoodcriticmysteries

A dish to die for is the 12th book in the A Key West Food Critic Mystery series. I have not read all of them and it didn’t interfere with me reading this book.

Hayley Snow is a food critic for Key Zest magazine. She decides to meet up with a friend fora beach lunch when her dog finds a body in a shallow grave. The body is identified as developer GG Garcia, a rabble-rousing Key West local who womanizing, and refusing to follow city rules.

Haley is slowly pulled into the case, especially after another person who was there when the body was found is left beaten. Can Haley find the guilty party or will she be next?

It was a fun cozy mystery but I felt it was a little slow at times. Overall I would give it 4 stars.

I loved the setting in the Keys!
I also really enjoyed learning about all the weird Key West dishes like conch meat that are considered traditional to the island now,
While I wish it wasn't yet another sleuth-cop couple, I do like the MC and her hubby.
I thought the mystery was well paced and complex enough to keep the wheels turning.
I also enjoyed who the "culprits" turned out to be and why they did what they did more than usual.
I might have enjoyed the book a little more if I had started at book #1, since there seemed to character developments I lacked a bit of background on, although the author did a pretty good job of filling in most of the blanks. Given how much fun this read was, I will probably eventually go back and read the earlier books in the series as well.
Also, as a waitress, I appreciated the small shoutout to how physically intense the job is. My ankles are still sore as I type this and I'm about to work a double for Mother's Day!

Thanks again to NetGalley and the author for making this free copy available to me.

Another winner from Lucy Burdette. Haley Snow, now happily married, finds a semi-buried corpse at the dog park, or rather her dog uncovers fingers stuck up in the sand. Adding to that frisson of discomfort, Nathan's estranged father is headed to the Keys to do a pre-accredation overview of his police department. Hayley capably handles it all with the help of series beloved characters and Nathan's father. Good mystery. Excellent sense of place.

Hayley writes a food column for her local key West FL paper. She and her new husband, Nathan live on a houseboat with their pets, and when she and her friend visit the local dog park, they are shocked when Ziggy's digging uncovers a body. Turns out the deceased is one of the most despicable people on the island, but law enforcement still must look into his cause of death--with Hayley's assistance, of course. Delicious sounding recipes are included. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Lucy Burdette never seems to run out of new ways to look at Key West. In this book, old-world Key West clashes with the drive for development with fatal results. Hayley Snow, food critic and accidental detective stumbles across a murder scene on a walk with a friend and her husband's dog, Ziggy. Although she tries to resist getting involved with the case, she gets dragged into it along with her elderly friend, Miss Gloria. Burdette introduces some new characters in this installment, including her father-in-law. Smart move because it keeps the series fresh and offers opportunities for new subplots. She deftly handles the COVID pandemic, mentioning its impact on the local economy without getting bogged down in detail. I've read several of the previous books in the series, and it's always a fun ride!