Pamela C. (pj-s-bookcorner) reviewed Murder with Fried Chicken and Waffles (Mahalia Watkins, Bk 1) on + 860 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Enjoyable cozy mystery set in Prince George's, MD. Started out very strong, but I think it slacked off mid-book. Don't get me wrong, still a good cozy. Halia owns and operates her own soul-food restaurant. When her investment partner winds up dead in her kitchen, she's on the trail to discover who did him in with her cast iron skillet. Fun read.
Brenda H. (booksinvt) -
Helpful Score: 2
Mahalia "Halia" Watkins is the owner of Mahalia's Sweet Tea, a soul food restaurant in Prince George's County, Maryland. Halia grew up at her Grandmommy's side helping cook the Sunday after meeting suppers for her family, and has added to and perfected on those recipes which she now serves up in her popular restaurant.
Halia's Mom Celia is the restaurant baker and her young cousin Wavonne is one of the servers. Halia's Mom spends most of her time trying to fix Halia up with eligible bachelors and Wavonne spends most of her time trying to avoid waiting on the customers.
When Marcus Rand a too suave scheming businessman, who also happens to be an investor in Sweet Tea, is found clobbered to death in the kitchen with one of Halia's cast iron frying pans, Halia and Wavonne take drastic steps to protect the restaurant's reputation. Things backfire though when Wavonne makes a bad decision and ends up becoming the number one suspect in Marcus' murder.
I enjoyed parts of this book but had problems with others. It is not often that a "cozy" features African-Americans as the main characters and I found that a refreshing change, however, I was some what put off by the way the author wrote Wavonne's manner of speaking. Wavonne reminded me of Stephanie Plum's best friend Lulu with her loud tight outfits, numerous wigs and weaves and sass, and her actions definitely led to some laugh out loud scenes. But, the author seemed to really "dumb down" her dialect with a lot of unnecessary slang that didn't seem to fit in with the other characters in the book.
The mystery is well written and plenty of characters are offered up as potential suspects, but the actions of Halia and Wavonne after finding Marcus's body are illegal and it was frustrating that even though Halia solves the murder there were no repercussions from the Police Department. While every protagonist in a cozy takes things a little too far and snoops around a little too much, a definite crime was committed and some sort of punishment should have been handed down.
Overall the book was likeable and provided for a fast afternoon read. There are some tasty recipes included throughout, and I look forward to trying out one or two of them.
Halia's Mom Celia is the restaurant baker and her young cousin Wavonne is one of the servers. Halia's Mom spends most of her time trying to fix Halia up with eligible bachelors and Wavonne spends most of her time trying to avoid waiting on the customers.
When Marcus Rand a too suave scheming businessman, who also happens to be an investor in Sweet Tea, is found clobbered to death in the kitchen with one of Halia's cast iron frying pans, Halia and Wavonne take drastic steps to protect the restaurant's reputation. Things backfire though when Wavonne makes a bad decision and ends up becoming the number one suspect in Marcus' murder.
I enjoyed parts of this book but had problems with others. It is not often that a "cozy" features African-Americans as the main characters and I found that a refreshing change, however, I was some what put off by the way the author wrote Wavonne's manner of speaking. Wavonne reminded me of Stephanie Plum's best friend Lulu with her loud tight outfits, numerous wigs and weaves and sass, and her actions definitely led to some laugh out loud scenes. But, the author seemed to really "dumb down" her dialect with a lot of unnecessary slang that didn't seem to fit in with the other characters in the book.
The mystery is well written and plenty of characters are offered up as potential suspects, but the actions of Halia and Wavonne after finding Marcus's body are illegal and it was frustrating that even though Halia solves the murder there were no repercussions from the Police Department. While every protagonist in a cozy takes things a little too far and snoops around a little too much, a definite crime was committed and some sort of punishment should have been handed down.
Overall the book was likeable and provided for a fast afternoon read. There are some tasty recipes included throughout, and I look forward to trying out one or two of them.
Cyndi J. (cyndij) reviewed Murder with Fried Chicken and Waffles (Mahalia Watkins, Bk 1) on + 1031 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.
Jacque S. (twinmomx5) -
Cute and funny and down home fun.
