Book 47, 2022

Expiration Date by Devon Delaney

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Brought my work book home yesterday and finished it last night. It was Expiration Date by Devon Delaney, and it is the first part of the "Cook-Off" cozy mystery series. The main character is Sherry Frazzelle.

With her amicable divorce pending, Sherry spends her time helping her father at his shop and participating in cooking competitions. Sherry is elated when one such competition takes place in her hometown and features a $10,000 prize. Things are going well during the competition until one of the chefs face-plants at the table and it's determined the last thing he ate was Sherry's dish. When the police continue to question her, Sherry is determined to find out who really did the chef in. The more she digs, however, the more she begins to wonder if Chef Birns was the actual target...and the more danger she puts herself into.

Forgive me, but the first word that comes to mind when I think of this book is dumb. The premise wasn't clever, the narrative was tedious, and I didn't even like the main character. I never connected with her at all. I found it absurd that the chef's manner of death was determined within 24 hours. Really? Because autopsies and toxicology reports can take weeks to produce results. Also, how did the criminal know that Sherry was looking into things just one day later? The ending of the book was worthy of an episode of Scooby Doo, from the creepy old house to the confession. What I found most annoying, however, was the fact that Sherry was continuously correcting people when they mispronounced her last name. Not that she did so, but that the author saw fit to give her character such an awkward name, one that necessitated this happening again and again. Boring!

Favorite lines:
♦ "I'd dip my grandmother in egg wash and roll her in panko bread crumbs for a chance at a ten-thousand-dollar grand prize."
♦ "Pickles may just be the ticket to fulfillment you've been searching for."

I didn't care for this story, and I doubt I'll read any more in the series. I was going to give it two stars, but during the epilogue, when one of the detectives asked Sherry to dinner, she turned him down because of how he'd doubted her integrity during the investigation. Preach, sister! That small scene earns this an extra point: 3 stars