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    Death Al Dente
    Death Al Dente
    Death Al Dente
    Audiobook9 hours

    Death Al Dente

    Written by Leslie Budewitz

    Narrated by Rebecca Mitchell

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The town of Jewel Bay, Montana-known as a Food Lovers' Village-is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare. So when Erin Murphy takes over her family's century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies. But Erin's freshly booming business might go rotten when a former employee turns up dead . . .

    Murphy's Mercantile, known as the Merc, has been a staple in Jewel Bay for over a hundred years. To celebrate their recent makeover as a gourmet food market, Erin has organized a town festival, Festa di Pasta, featuring the culinary goods of Jewel Bay's finest-including her mother Fresca's delicious Italian specialties.

    But Erin's sweet success is soured when the shop's former manager, Claudette, is found dead behind the Merc on the Festa's opening night. With rival chef James Angelo stirring up rumors that Fresca's sauce recipes were stolen from Claudette, Erin's mother is under close scrutiny. Now Erin will have to hunt down some new suspects, or both her family and her store might wind up in hot water . . .
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 30, 2017
    ISBN9781541472082
    Death Al Dente
    Author

    Leslie Budewitz

    Leslie Budewitz blends her passion for food, great mysteries, and the Northwest in two cozy mystery series, the Spice Shop Mysteries, set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. She also writes moody suspense under the pen name Alicia Beckman. Leslie is the winner of three Agatha Awards—2013 Best First Novel for DEATH AL DENTE, the first Food Lovers' Village mystery; 2011 Best Nonfiction, and 2018 Best Short Story, for “All God’s Sparrows,” her first historical fiction. A past president of Sisters in Crime and a former board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives and cooks in NW Montana.

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    Reviews for Death Al Dente

    3.5/5

    58 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Death al Dente is the first in a series called "A Food Lover's Village Mystery". Erin Murphy has recently come back to her hometown after working and gaining experience in Seattle. She's back to work in Murphy's Mercantile, or the Merc; the family business. She begins to change and update products and how the business is run as well as organizing a village-wide "summer kick-off" celebration. On the first night of the celebration she finds a former employee dead in an alleyway. The local cop is her former best friend who might not be all that impartial. Her mom becomes the main suspect and the murder begins to affect the business so Erin wants this murder solved as soon as possible.This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I liked the characters and the story was entertaining. Can't wait to read the next book in the series.
    • 3/5
      Erin Murphy has recently returned to Jewel Bay, Montana, to put new life into Murphy’s Mercantile, a general store that’s been in her family for 100 years. Her emphasis is on locally produced food items that will be in sync with the town’s upscale image as a haven for foodies. Her return coincided with the store’s former manager’s move to Las Vegas with her married beau – a chiropractor turned Elvis impersonator.Rumor – untrue as it turns out -- has it that Claudette was dumped to make room for Erin and that Erin’s mom’s line of Italian sauces is based on recipes stolen from Claudette. As the story opens, Claudette has returned from Las Vegas and is murdered while a food festival, organized by Erin, is going on. Suspicion falls on Erin’s mom, Fresca. When the state police take over the investigation, Erin is concerned that outsiders may very well glom onto her mom and not look for whoever really killed Claudette, so Erin starts investigating. Death al Dente is standard cozy fare, Erin Murphy a standard cozy heroine. Although the plot was OK, the writing seemed “cluttered” to me, the pacing slowed by too much emphasis on everything except the crime and its resolution. Too many characters, too many secondary plots, too much to divert readers from the mystery elements.
    • 2/5
      I thought this book would never wrap itself up and end
    • 2/5
      Erin Murphy returned home to run the family mercantile with her mother Fresca. People accuse Fresca of stealing Claudette's recipes, and when Claudette turns up murdered, Erin's one-time friend employed now as the town detective suspects Fresca of the crime. The mystery did not hold together well. The narrative seemed scattered. Shallow characterization contributed to a disconnect with the story. I struggled with the decision to keep reading or abandon it. I decided to see if it improved. I think it came together enough at the end, but readers still wonder how it got there. I doubt I'll read any more of the series.
    • 2/5
      Erin Murphy has returned home to Montana after many years away to help run her family business, Murphy's Mercantile. She's decided that the way to go to make it profitable is to carry items made in Montana, including her mother's own Italian recipes.But first her mother is accused of stealing the recipes of an old friend, Claudette, who has hightailed it to Las Vegas with a local chiropractor; and even though Fresca (her mother) denies it, there are still rumors. Then, when Claudette suddenly returns - and is found dead behind the mercantile - the rumors are getting serious. Suddenly Fresca is the main suspect and Erin decides the only way to clear her mother (who refuses any help) is to find the killer herself. But will her investigation do more harm than good?I honestly really wanted to like this book, and I tried...but I kept falling asleep every time I picked it up. I'm not sure why; usually I have no problem reading books straight through, and even managing to read one a day. But this one...The characters were boring. The dialogue was boring. We never get to know anything at all about Claudette; there is only one small conversation between Erin and her where she tells Erin the rumors are false and how she found out the chiropractor was never in love with her. Then...she's dead. So we never get to engage with her at all - even though everyone says that she was wonderful, all I got to see was a crying, near-hysterical woman over a broken short-lived affair. The detective in charge of the case is an old ex-friend of Erin's, and honestly, I finished the book because I wanted to see why they'd drifted apart after Erin's father's death, and it was a letdown. Also, I didn't understand why she felt the need to call her mother by her first name. Didn't she want customers to know they were related? Was she afraid of being accused of nepotism? It didn't make any sense. Many, many people work with their parents and call them Mom or Dad. It seemed ridiculous. If she wanted customers to know who created the recipes, just have the woman wear a name tag or something. Don't call your mother by her first name at work and then 'mom' at home. Good grief.I think part of the problem is Erin is self-centered. She seems a bit snobbish, and so does her sister, Chiara. Also, there's just Too Much Detail about things that aren't important to the reader. It's hard to actually place, but the dialogue for one could be a little more interesting. (And honestly, who's going to join a Jam Club?)In the end, the reason for the murder didn't really make any sense to me, so that's part of the reason the book fell flat. As it is, I always try to give the author a pass on the first in a new series, and I will read the next in the hope that it will improve.
    • 3/5
      Not a bad first book in a series. I love the small town Montana setting and I love the idea of the Mercantile - a shop focussing on local, fresh produce and grocery.

      I didn't connect immediately with the main characters, but there weren't any I disliked either. Two possible romantic interests have been introduced and I hope the author treads carefully; there's a serious backlash against love triangles and I for one am beyond over them. They are tiresome and irritating.

      The plot was well crafted and adding rampant rumours to the mix muddies up the possibilities very effectively. Lots of suspects too.

      Overall, a good, solid beginning. I'm not jumping up and down in excitement, but I'll definitely be adding this series to the list of those that I'm following. I look forward to the next book.
    • 4/5
      Erin Murphy comes home to Jewel Bay to help her mother and shortly after her return convinces the local merchants to plan a festival to start the summer season - Festa di Pasta. The inaugural event is marred when a returning resident is found dead in the alley behind the party. It doesn't help Erin that the person was her mother's former employee who left with a married man. Fingers start to point in all directions - Erin's mother for possibly being angry a being left in the lurch, the married man, the angry wife - but the police seemed to think that Erin's mother is the prime suspect.Enlisting her friends and family to help find the answers, Erin delves into the secrets of the town to clear her mother.I love the character of Erin who is trying not only to help her mother but also her hometown - working to utilize and sell homegrown items as much as possible.The author has woven a clever mystery while at the same time introduced us to some very interesting characters.
    • 2/5
      Deliverance could not come soon enough. Death Al Dente is a competently written book, but not a particularly well written one. The heroine, Erin, seems to be busy trying to solve a murder to save her business - a common plot point - but most of the time all we are fed with are her quite boring thoughts and speculation. She never makes any strong inquiries and in a way the fruit of her puny labors falls in her lap. I wanted to abandon this book, and I know now that my flair for a good grasp of what lies ahead is to be trusted. At least it was understandable and though boring, the book is never abjectly awful. One more thing; the lack of face to face climax, when avoided in a cozy, is always welcome. Except for here, where the story cried for action. Oh well, maybe I don't know what I want.
    • 5/5
      Near the top of my list of guilty pleasures is the culinary mystery genre--or mysteries with recipes, if you will. Whether they be Diane Mott Davidson's stories about Goldy Schultz, or Stephen Stanley's Jesse Ashworth, give me a mystery and a recipe and I'm hooked. Now with a new series starting from the pen of Leslie Budewitz, I not only have my mystery and food, but a setting I know and love. Jewel Bay, Montana may be a fictional place, but it's based very clearly on the resort town of Bigfork, Montana, and I was able to follow Erin Murphy as she moved around the place, knowing almost exactly where she was at any moment. Great fun, engaging characters, and good food. What more can we ask for.