chez_jae

Six Feet Deep Dish by Mindy Quigley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I finished reading Six Feet Deep Dish about an hour ago. It's the first book in author Mindy Quigley's "Deep Dish" mystery series. The main character is chef Delilah O'Leary.

Delilah has the world by the tail. She's engaged to a wealthy tech savant, and she's on the verge of opening her own pizza restaurant in idyllic Geneva Bay, WI. On the eve of her soft opening, however, she and Sam get into an argument and Sam pulls a runner. As if that wasn't bad enough, someone is shot to death at the lake shore, right outside Delilah's restaurant. Worst of all, however, Delilah's elderly Aunt Biz is found holding the gun. Desperate to clear her aunt's name and ensure that her restaurant can open on time, Delilah starts sifting through clues on her own. Her amateur sleuthing puts her at odds with handsome detective Calvin Capone. And yes, he's a descendant of the famous gangster. Solving a murder isn't the only trouble Delilah is dealing with. Sam's money was bankrolling her entire endeavor, and now that he's gone AWOL, Delilah won't be able to meet payroll or pay her suppliers. Delilah has people who are willing to help; she just needs to let go of her urge to be in control of everything and accept it.

I struggled with this book at first. I didn't really care for Delilah at all. She came across as abrasive and acerbic, and she was self-absorbed. The fact that she had no idea how much of her restaurant was reliant on Sam was eye-opening for her. As the story progressed, however, I warmed up to Delilah. I liked her BFF Sonya, her Aunt Biz, and I really enjoyed the character of Rabbit--an ex-con whom Delilah hires to bus tables and handle general clean-up. Plus, she had a portly, plus-sized cat named Butterball who was a real hoot.

Favorite lines:
♦ "I never even got to fire him. That was going to have been the highlight of my evening."
♦ If my ship was going to sink, I might as well steer straight for the iceberg with all engines steaming.
♦ He's a lazy, worthless little punk, and I would take enormous pleasure in watching him be consumed by flesh-eating beetles.
♦ She was exactly the kind of trim, elegant woman who still intimidated me. Sure, I could probably dunk on her if we were shooting hoops and I'd definitely annihilate her in a tug-of-war, but those things rarely came up in day-to-day life.
♦ "Girl, please. I've churned out four hundred cheese soufflés in under three hours with Jean-Philippe Frenet screaming in my ear."

Once I got into this book, I really enjoyed it, and I'll definitely read more in the series. Four stars.

( Trope Test )