Review by Booklist Review
Here's a new entry in the cozy-mystery-with-recipes subgenre. Cavender sets his tale in small-town Timber Ridge, North Carolina. Pizzeria owner Eleanor Swift is a young widow still mourning the loss of her husband in an automobile accident. She is helped by her free-spirit sister, Maddy, a divorcée still looking for Mr. Right after multiple tries at matrimony. Obviously, the ladies are very different, but they are devoted friends all the same. The action starts quickly as El discovers the body of a customer to whom she is delivering a pizza. The customer turns out to have a lot of enemies including El herself, who recently had a very public argument with the victim, making her a suspect and prompting the sisters to investigate. The pseudonymous Cavender (apparently a veteran mystery writer under his own name) introduces a promising cast of characters, including police chief Kevin Hurley, who will likely be fleshed out in subsequent books. The real attraction here will be the pizza recipes and tips; the mystery itself is formulaic but perfectly serviceable for readers more interested in the food than the crime.--Coon, Judy Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Pizza lovers will relish the pseudonymous Cavender's delightful first in a new cozy series, which introduces Eleanor Swift, owner of A Slice of Life, a pizzeria in Timber Ridge, N.C. When late one winter night Eleanor delivers a pizza ("one of my specials decked out with pepperoni, sausage, ham, bacon, hamburger, and little bits of sliced sirloin"), she finds her customer, Richard Olsen, lying dead on the floor with a kitchen knife in his chest. Kevin Hurley, the surly local police chief who pursued her back in high school, responds to her 911 call. Suspecting Eleanor is guilty, Kevin does his best to make her life difficult. Olsen's dotty sister thinks so, too, but once she's convinced of Eleanor's innocence, she asks Eleanor's help in solving the murder. Eleanor's occasionally married sister, Maddy, assists in the sleuthing. A lively pace and a thrilling climax more than compensate for some distracting chatter and not always relevant sibling spats. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Pizzeria owner Eleanor Swift is making a delivery when she finds her customer dead in this series debut. It happens that Eleanor had threatened the man, and she is now suspect No. 1. Only her sister believes she is not a murderer, so they begin to investigate. Verdict The camaraderie of the Timber Ridge, NC, sisters is reminiscent of Nancy Martin's Blackbird siblings. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
