Hot Dish Heaven: A Murder Mystery With Recipes (1) (Hot Dish Heaven Mystery)

In the first book of this new cozy mystery series, cub newspaper reporter Emerald Malloy is assigned to travel from Minneapolis to a small, rural community in the Red River Valley of northwestern Minnesota to gather church-food recipes from the owner of Hot Dish Heaven, a local café. Upon her arrival, she learns of an old, unsolved murder. Confident that solving the case will catapult her from newspaper "gopher" to investigative reporter, a/k/a heralded woman sleuth, Emerald questions the quirky townspeople while attending a benefit dinner-dance at the VFW. By the end of the night, she has consumed lots of "funeral food" while talking to an array of colorful characters, from the Irish-Catholic priest who lives among these Scandinavian-Lutheran farmers to the café owner's eccentric aunts. She has also met--and fallen for--a hunky deputy sheriff. And she's even learned some tough life lessons about herself. But the question remains, Will she live long enough for any of it to matter?

This book is a delicious culinary mystery, complete with recipes for hot dish, bars, and Jell-O salads. It also serves up nicely as a contemporary romance that features a sharp-tongued, yet endearing, young female sleuth who's smitten with the local deputy sheriff. And when it's all said and done, this story will leave you, the reader, certain you weren't offered leftovers but, instead, were provided--as the humble Scandinavians would say--a "pretty darn good" humorous mystery about life in rural Minnesota. Oh, yah, you betcha!

Lois Greiman, author of the zany and highly acclaimed Chrissy McMullen mystery series, says of Hot Dish Heaven: A Murder Mystery with Recipes, "It's chockablock full of Garrison Keillor type characters and tasty Midwest flavor. Ms. Cooney's novel, complete with must-try recipes, will keep you intrigued from start to finish."