Review of "No Parm No Foul: A Grilled Cheese Mystery" by Linda Reilly

In this 2nd book in the 'Grilled Cheese Mysteries' series, restaurateur/amateur sleuth Carly Hale investigates the murder of a fellow restaurant owner.

*****

When thirtysomething Carly Hale's husband died in a tragic accident, she moved back to her hometown of Balsam Dell, Vermont and opened Carly's Grilled Cheese Eatery.





Carly's restaurant has become quite popular, and she now employs part-time server Suzanne Rivers.....



....... and grill cook/aspiring chef Grant Robinson.



Up until now Grant has also been working part-time at Sub-a-Dub-Sub, owned by Ferris Menard, but Grant recently reported Menard to the Board of Health and quit.

Grant is a creative cook, and he's helping Carly design her eatery's entry for the town's annual 'Halloween Scary-Licious Smorgasbord' competition, which is happening in two days. It's Carly's first time competing for the $500 cash prize, and her major rival is Ferris Menard, who's won for the past three years.

Unfortunately, Ferris Menard, who has a terrible temper, blames Carly for Grant's defection from Sub-a-Dub-Sub. Thus Menard storms into the Grilled Cheese Eatery, and booms, "Carly Hale. I heard about your little sabotage ploy. Well, it won't work - do you hear me?" Ferris goes on to suggest Carly knows nothing about cheese and yells, "You're a fraud, and I'm going to prove it."



Carly's boyfriend Ari Mitchell is present when Menard makes his threats, and Ari escorts the furious blustering man from the premises.



Following this brouhaha there's a glitch in the 'Halloween Scary-Licious Smorgasbord' contest, after which Menard is found dead his restaurant, with a boot print on his shirt and a knife in his chest.

Police Chief Fred Holloway leads the investigation into Menard's murder, and the clues point to Ari Mitchell as the perpetrator. Carly is determined to prove her beau is innocent, so she launches her own inquiries......though she knows it may be dangerous.

Menard was a difficult man with a reputation for mean tricks, so there are a number of suspects for his murder. These include:

Holly Dalrymple - Menard's biological daughter, who only recently met her dad....and might be an heir.



Tyler Huling - a hardware store manager who's rumored to be dating Holly.



Chip Foster - an employee of Balsam Dell Compost who was a victim of Menard's cruel prank in high school.



Steve Perlman - a teacher who was Menard's schoolmate as a teen, and has bad memories of the time.



Portia Fletcher - Menard's estranged wife, who's not mourning her husband's death.



In addition to investigating the homicide, Carly gets advice from her best friend Gina; visits with her mother Rhonda; meets her sister Norah's new boyfriend, who's dressed as a clown; shares Chinese food with her boyfriend Ari; chats with Grant about his future - which seems to be a toss-up between being a professional chef and a professional musician; walks her cute dog Havarti; and more.



This is a typical cozy mystery, where the amateur sleuth thinks the police can't catch the killer, but she can. Since Carly has no forensics (no fingerprints, no DNA, no phone records, no clues of any kind), all she does is go around asking questions, thinking she'll sniff out the killer.

At the climax, Carly does snag the murderer.....with some help from her friends.

I thought some plot points were unrealistic, but I like the story's setting, characters, and food. Some of the yummy sandwiches served at Carly's restaurant are Sweddar Weather (grilled swiss and cheddar on marble rye); Brie-ing on the Apples, Granny (brie and sliced apples with cherry relish); and Alvin's Panco Perfection (panko-and-parmesan coated tomatoes and cheddar).


Sweddar Weather



Brie-ing on the Apples, Granny


Alvin's Panco Perfection

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Blue Skies: A Climate Fiction Novel" by T.C. Boyle

Global warming is real and T.C. Boyle highlights some of the unfortunate consequences in this seriocomic, climate fiction (cli-fi) novel. California is getting drier, Florida is getting wetter, and we observe the effects through the eyes of a family split between the coasts.

*****

Ottilie and Frank raised their children, Cooper and Catherine (Cat), in Santa Barbara, California, a coastal city that lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains.




Santa Barbara

Cooper, a Ph.D. student in entomology, now lives in the nearby Santa Ynez Valley;



and Cat, a would-be influencer, lives in a beach house near St. Augustine, Florida, with her fiancé Todd.





Until Ottilie retired three years ago, she'd run her husband Frank's medical practice, overseeing everything, 'hiring and firing, the supply chain, billing, insurance, even rotating the dracaena and umbrella plants in the waiting room.'



Ottilie's life is more relaxed these days, with laps in the pool every morning; socializing with her best friend Sylvie; cocktails, wine, and gourmet dinners; etc. Now, at the behest of her environmentalist son Cooper, Ottilie has taken up cricket farming - growing the insects in a home cricket reactor.


Cricket Reactor

According to Cooper's mantra, this would produce an 'endless supply of high-fiber, low-fat protein' and would 'reduce the methane load produced by the earth's billion or so cattle and the felling of all those forests to provide pasture for them.' Ottilie prepares insect recipes like cricket chapulines and cricket tacos for her family, and even (clandestinely) serves disguised cricket dishes at a dinner party.


Cricket Chapulines


Cricket Tacos

Unfortunately, home insect farms don't do much to attenuate climate change, and California has been experiencing a drought for four or five years. This results in water shortages, wildfires, and widespread death and destruction. The converse is true of Florida, where the constant humidity and frequent storms result in wetness and mold everywhere, and the ubiquitous odor of mold, rot, and decay.


Drought in California


Flooding in Florida

Thus Ottilie, Frank, and Cooper have too little water; and Cat has too much.

The story is told in the rotating voices of Ottilie, Cooper and Cat, all of whose lives are (more or less) unstrung over the course of the story.

When Cat first moves to Florida with Todd, she's at something of a loose end. Todd is a brand ambassador for Bacardí rum, which involves hosting parties all over the world. Todd's frequent travels often leave Cat home alone, and though she picks up a little work here and there, Cat's ambition is to be an influencer. Thus Cat is trying to build up followers, but it's slow going, and she needs a 'hook.'

Cat is wandering around the local shopping district one afternoon, planning to drop into Bobo's for a mojito or two, when she spots a shop called 'Herps.' The reptile store has a huge, eye-catching snake in the window and Cat hits on the idea of buying a snake - a beautiful brown and gold serpent she can drape around her neck for social media pictures.

Cat ends up with a Burmese python named Willie II, and the photos of Cat and Willie II collect like after like. Cat thinks she's stumbled onto an identity that will elevate her as an influencer, 'the Snake Lady here to sell your line of tops, or jewelry or designer tees or whatever it was.'



Todd isn't thrilled about having a snake in the house, but he lets it go, and the serpent is installed in a glass cage in the living room. Willie II plays an important role in the following chain of events.



In the meantime, things get worse and worse along Florida's beachfront. Because of the rainstorms, hurricanes, and tides, Cat can't trust her driveway or even the peninsula road, a whole section of which keeps washing out as fast as it's repaired. So Cat often leaves the car (Todd's showy Tesla) in Bobo's parking lot, and pilots a skiff to town.



Cat also has to deal with 'the mold creeping insidiously up the walls and the pilings rotting under the house.' Add to that the threat of termites, 'a kind of metastasizing arthropodal cancer that would devastate everything if you didn't get right on it', and Cat has troubles galore.



Cat's lucky in one way, because her mother Ottilie is a force of nature. When Cat needs her mom, Ottilie hops on a plane and hurries to Florida, which isn't always easy with hurricanes and flight changes.



Ottilie is most often home in California though, where she struggles to be environmentally conscious and bemoans the increasingly dire drought. Ottilie starts to rear mealworms and to host beehives, while she severely limits water use. Eventually Ottilie limits herself to one three-minute shower a week, 'wet the hair, twist off the faucet, lather up, then turn it back on for a quick rinse....and forget the hair conditioner.' Ottilie also does her best to help her grown son Cooper, who has troubles of his own.



Cooper is doing his Ph.D. research on monarch butterflies, which are becoming increasingly scarce. This year, Cooper has seen precious few of the lepidopterans, 'which was beyond worrisome, considering they were reaching the point of no return, one more species sinking into the void.'


Monarch Butterflies

In fact all insects seem to be enduring a crisis, with a mass disappearance of many types. For Cooper, this signals 'the food chain imperiled, the world in collapse....doom atop doom.' Besides that, Cooper experiences personal troubles, one of which begins when he's helping his girlfriend Mari, a science nerd who studies ticks.




Tick

Cooper's fellow researcher Elytra, who does research on kissing bugs, does have a suggestion to curb climate change.




Kissing Bug

Elytra posits, 'The solution [to global warming] is simple,' she says. 'You go up twelve miles in a fleet of jets and spray sulfuric acid, which combines with water vapor to form sulfate aerosols to reflect sunlight back into space.' But this notion infuriates Cooper, who calls the idea delusional.


Geoengineering with sulfates would produce a white sky

I won't say more to avoid spoilers, but there's plenty of drama - and some comedy - in the book.

The story is compelling, and Boyle does a good job bringing home the (possibly) horrific consequences of human despoliation of the earth. Some of the main characters, however, are not especially likable, with a tendency to be selfish, and to dull their lives with alcohol. The story seems very realistic though, and I highly recommend the book to interested readers.

Thanks to Netgalley, T.C. Boyle, and W.W. Norton & Company for a copy of the manuscript.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Six Ostriches: A Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery" by Philipp Schott

 

This second 'Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery' is set in a Canadian town in early spring. It features animal desecration, Nordic cults, murder, tattoos, and a good sniffer dog.

Dr. Peter Bannerman, a veterinarian in the lakeside town of New Selfoss, Manitoba, is an amateur sleuth who can't help getting involved in criminal investigations.



This puts Peter at odds with his brother-in-law Kevin, an officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) who doesn't want Peter's 'help.'



Bannerman has a varied veterinary practice, but 'Big Bird' is his first ostrich patient.



Big Bird's owners, Dan and Kim Favel, note that their ostrich is off his feed and call Dr. Bannerman to have a look. An X-ray reveals a foreign object in Big Bird's digestive tract, and a surgical extraction unearths a mjolnir - a Norse religious symbol worn as a pendant.



Bannerman thinks the ornament is a tourist knick-knack but Professor Grimur Sturluson, an archaeologist at the University of Manitoba, identifies the mjolnir as a Viking artefact that's at least 1000 years old. The Vikings arrived in Canada in the 11th century, and there are many Icelandic and Scandinavian people in Manitoba, so an ancient Norse relic is not unprecedented.


Vikings


Norse descendants at a street festival in Canada

Afterward, Bannerman gets called to several 'crime scenes' where carnage has been inflicted on innocent animals. First, Rose Baldwin's ram Patrick has his throat cut, his penis cut off, his testicles removed, and his blood drained. Second, Dan and Kim Favel's pony Misty is killed, decapitated, and bled out. Third, Peggy Dinsdale's billy goat Stinky is gouged in the neck and exsanguinated.

To add to the disquiet, the Favels' receive a note reading: "Skraelings! Now that you have proof that you occupy the sacred Vesturvatnsland (west water country) of our ancestors, you have no excuse to stay. This will be your only written warning." Worse yet, the pony Misty's head - gross and maggoty - is later left on the Favels' doorstep.

Bannerman speculates that all these atrocities are related to a Norse cult that demands animal sacrifice and uses blood. This theory is reinforced after Peter and his champion sniffer dog Pippin....

.

.....find a nithing pole, a wooden pole used in a Norse religious ritual where an animal's head is put on a stake and pointed toward a person to curse them.



Peter also sees several people in New Selfoss with tattoos featuring snakes, which are often depicted in Viking art.



Peter shares his cult theories with his cop brother-in-law Kevin, who's skeptical.....as is Kevin's police partner Kristine.

More attacks follow, and the stakes get very high when a person is killed. Though Peter is discouraged from 'aiding' in the investigation, he can't help himself, and Peter and Pippin carry on and uncover important evidence.

As all this is going on, we get glimpses into Bannerman's personal life. Peter is married to his college sweetheart Laura, a professional knitter.



Laura makes specialty items to order, such as a cardigan in Ravenclaw house colors and Game of Throne mittens.





As it happens, Laura - who's descended from Icelandic ancestors - is very knowledgeable about Norse culture, and actually uncovers information that helps Peter's inquiries. Peter also gets veterinary advice from an old crush; tries out for a dart-throwing team; becomes re-acquainted with a bully that tormented him in high school; drinks many cups of artisanal tea; treats additional ailing ostriches; and more.

All this leads to an exciting climax and surprising revelations.

For me the plot is over-complicated and a little hard to follow. Still, I enjoyed the story and like the characters, especially the Bannermans' dog Pippin and their cat Merry, who loves to cuddle with Laura.



I'd recommend the book to fans of cozy-ish mysteries.

Thanks to Netgalley, Philipp Schott, and ECW Press for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars