Review: Do or Diner by Christine Wenger

Blurb: When Trixie Matkowski agrees to take over her aunt’s diner, she pictures lakeside views and delicious comfort food in the small town where she spent summers as a child. But the sweet scene turns sour when someone puts murder on the menu…

Trixie is in need of a fresh start away from her cheating ex-husband, but she may be biting off more than she can chew when she moves to upstate New York to run her family’s famed Silver Bullet Diner. Not only is she caught off guard by the small town’s resident heartthrob, Deputy Ty Brisco, but her first health inspection turns into a nightmare…when the inspector keels over in his Blue Plate Special.

It seems someone made a deadly addition to an old family recipe, and Trixie is determined to find out whodunit. But between serving up orders and sniffing out clues, she’d better watch her back—or her next meal might be her last.

My Review: Christine Wenger's first Comfort Food Mystery is a small town cozy at it's best: engaging characters you instantly connect with, set in an upstate New York town in the winter, with descriptions of classic diner comfort food that will make your mouth water.

Trixie has returned to Sandy Harbor in the aftermath of filing for divorce and inheriting her aunt and late uncle's diner, the Silver Bullet, and it's adjoining properties: an old Victorian house, lakefront cottages that are available for summer rental, and a bait shop. Trixie feels a little in over her head, but is looking forward to her new life until the unthinkable happens: a local food critic drops dead after eating the diner's daily special, pork and scalloped potatoes laced with poisonous mushrooms. Suddenly the Silver Bullet goes from a local hotspot to a ghost town. Trixie has no choice but to hunt down a killer in order to save her livelihood.

The mystery is light and breezy; it will challenge your brain without overtaxing it...my favorite kind of read. Humor is abundant via the Dinerese speak amongst the Silver Bullet's waitresses.

The cast of characters in this cozy are really a stand out bunch: Trixie's staff at the Silver Bullet, a pair of spinster sisters, rival restauranteurs, a possibly shady mayor, and especially a hunky Texas cowboy who also just happens to be Sandy Harbor's new deputy sheriff and lives on Trixie's property. Add in a sweet stray Golden retriever that Trixie and deputy Ty name Goldie and decide to share custody of and you have the makings for one of the best new series of the year.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher with the request for a review.