Eat, Drink and Drop Dead – T.C. Lotempio

Summary

Food critic and blogger Tiffany Austin has the best job in the world: she gets to eat for a living. At least, she hopes she has a job. Her trial period at Southern Style magazine is up – and rumors are swirling that management are making a choice between Tiffany and a rival columnist: the ambitious Jenny Lee Plumm.

Former chef Tiffany knows she has a battle on her hands . . . but she didn’t realize it was to the death! When her rival’s body is discovered after the two have a very public argument, Tiffany finds herself the prime suspect in a murder investigation. The lead detective might be very hot – but Tiffany’s definitely not ready to go down for a crime she didn’t commit.

Ably assisted by Hilary, her best friend and partner in (non) crime, and bolstered by the unconditional love of her Siamese cat Lily and King Charles Cavalier puppy Cooper, Tiffany plunges into an investigation of her own. After all, she has a degree from the CIA – the Culinary Institute of America – and she’s not afraid to use it. But can she find the real killer before she’s served up to the cops on a silver platter?

Review

This was sweet! My first cozy mystery actually, it felt like a Hallmark movie for some reason? But it works, for its audience, I think it gets the job done well.

Yes, 70% of the dialogue is cheesy but I found it endearing, and with the Southern accent of the audiobook’s narrator, it doesn’t feel cringey…… It just works!

The cover definitely could be better but I understand it’s a tricky thing to get perfect book covers.

Even though this is my first cozy, I think convenience plays a big part for the mysteries to get solved in these type of books so I overlooked that. The only instance that I did go uhh…, was when Tiff calls a certain store and gets loads of personal details that I’m pretty sure workers aren’t suppose to give? To anybody but the client themselves? So I did have a bit of a hard time getting past that.

Loved the little recipe at the end!