Key West Key Zest food critic Hayley Snow is
fairly certain she will not be having a white Christmas this year, but she is
hoping to have a murder-free Christmas so she can spend time with her friends
and her family, since her mother Janet has just moved down to Key West with her
new boyfriend Sam and has taken Key West by storm working for a catering
company, already getting assignments to plan holiday parties. Hayley loves her mother but is focused on
keeping her job and hopes her current assignment, interviewing Key West’s
newest chef, transplanted from Manhattan, Edel Waugh, will not only secure her
job, but maybe even win her some more notice in the journalism community. Hayley is a little taken aback when Edel tells
her, off the record, that she thinks someone is sabotaging the kitchen at
Bistro on the Bight, including changing recipes in Edel’s recipe bible, and
wants Hayley to look into it. It becomes
clear when a fire during the annual Key West Christmas parade (complete with
Hayley on Key Zest’s float dressed as
an elf) burns down Bistro on the Bight that someone has ratcheted up the ante,
but when Hayley learns that Edel’s ex-husband and business partner was killed
in the fire, determined to be arson, Hayley must gather all her wits and smoke
out a killer, a killer that may be closer to Hayley than she guessed, to ensure
a good night to all.
In her fifth mystery,
Hayley stays as fresh and engaging as ever.
She has adapted to life in Key West, taking care of Miss Gloria on her
houseboat and taking Key Zest by
storm, ferretting out all the latest food trends and unsung restaurants. Hayley, proud as she is of her mother, is a
little uncertain how Janet’s permanent arrival and residence in Key West will
affect her, but helps her mother in her new career as much as possible. After ending a bad relationship, which landed
her in Key West to begin with, Hayley is skittish on the romance front,
especially with her boss Wally with whom she is pretty sure she shares a mutual
attraction, but doesn’t want to move to quickly and jeopardize their friendship
and working relationship. Hayley’s
doggedness and search for the truth serves her well in both her career and her
sideline of amateur sleuth. There may
not be a nip in the air this December for Jersey-girl Hayley, but when there’s
a murderer on the loose, or a new restaurant in town, Hayley is on the case. A cameo by Burdette’s first mystery
character, Cassie Burdette (from the Golf Lover’s Mysteries written as Roberta
Isleib) will be a welcome return for longtime fans and will send others in
search of this first series.
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