Cyndi J. (cyndij) reviewed on 3/25/2018 + 1032 more book reviews

A cute and funny cozy, first in a new(ish) series featuring Mahalia Watkins, owner of Sweet Tea, a soul food restaurant in Maryland. I'll just say here I don't read a lot in this genre - I admit I am humor-challenged, and I have a hard time suspending belief for the cozy detective. But this sounded fun. So: Mahalia is shocked when her silent partner in the restaurant, fast-talking not-too-ethical Marcus, turns up dead in her kitchen. She makes a really bad decision at that point, which leads to a spectacularly bad decision by her younger cousin Wavonne, and then to the police looking at Wavonne as the suspect. Mahalia of course goes to work finding the killer for herself. I liked the characters, even most of the supporting ones felt pretty solid to me. The contrast between Halia, the responsible restaurant owner, and her free-spirited not too ambitious cousin waiting tables made me laugh. The restaurant setting is fun as well and there are several recipes included. I didn't guess whodunit but after thinking about it, Herbert did set up some clues for the reader. As a first in a series, this one sets up a lot of info about the restaurant's location and some history which drags the story just a bit. But - Halia's and Wavonne's bad decisions in the beginning made it really hard for me to believe that they would escape some kind of prosecution even after the murderer was found. With my huge TBR pile not sure if I'll read the next but I am going to try the sour cream cornbread.

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