Title: Death of a Kitchen Diva
Authors: Lee Hollis
Publisher: Kensington (March 1, 2012)
Format: Paperback
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: Library
Series: Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries #1
I do not want to be too harsh on a new author, or set of authors in the case of Lee Hollis also known as the brother and sister writing team of Rick Copp and Holly Simason – but this book is coming off more along the lines of a second or third draft than a completed novel.
The number one pet peeve is their need to add “zingers” to the end of a paragraph in the beginning of the book. Somehow trying to add a spark that just lies flat with me. Then there is the awkward sentence structure and overly descriptive characterizations. If these two flaws had been toned down a bit, which they were by the end of the book – or I had just got immune to them, I would have enjoyed this much more.
There were a couple lines that had me going back to reread, since my brain had stopped dead in its tracks wondering if I had misread something.
…Why buy that duct tape that she needed to reattach her rearview mirror after she smashed it into the brick wall of the bank pulling up too close to the ATM machine… (Pgs 89 – 90).
I do not know about the rest of you, but my rearview mirror is inside of my car and I think she would need more than duct tape if that happened. Could she have possibly been talking about her “side view mirrors”?
…The chowder could have been simmering in a Crock-pot on the stove all Saturday. (Pg 252),
Crock-pots do not simmer on a stove and since Holly Simason is a food and cocktails columnist, you would think that this would have been caught.
Hayley Powell is a single mother barely able to keep the leaky roof over her two adolescent children when an opportunity arises to take over the food column at her newspaper. Being the office manager, she has no journalism experience, but when the bills are piling up and an opportunity opens, she does what any mother would do – she grabs the chance and runs with it. Unfortunately, she runs right into Karen Applebaum, a columnist for a competing paper, and when Karen prints a recipe stolen from Hayley, the gloves are off.
In this instance, “gloves are off” is translated into a baked goods food fight in the public library and Hayley hissing “Or else I might just have to kill you.”
Of course, she did not mean it literally, but all mysteries have to start somewhere and when Karen’s body shows up – all fingers and spatulas are pointed at Hayley.
There are good parts of this book, the library scene reads very well, the individual newspaper columns are interesting and Hayley Powell is a very likeable character, I just do not known if these three points are enough to bring me back to this series in the future.
The number one pet peeve is their need to add “zingers” to the end of a paragraph in the beginning of the book. Somehow trying to add a spark that just lies flat with me. Then there is the awkward sentence structure and overly descriptive characterizations. If these two flaws had been toned down a bit, which they were by the end of the book – or I had just got immune to them, I would have enjoyed this much more.
There were a couple lines that had me going back to reread, since my brain had stopped dead in its tracks wondering if I had misread something.
…Why buy that duct tape that she needed to reattach her rearview mirror after she smashed it into the brick wall of the bank pulling up too close to the ATM machine… (Pgs 89 – 90).
I do not know about the rest of you, but my rearview mirror is inside of my car and I think she would need more than duct tape if that happened. Could she have possibly been talking about her “side view mirrors”?
…The chowder could have been simmering in a Crock-pot on the stove all Saturday. (Pg 252),
Crock-pots do not simmer on a stove and since Holly Simason is a food and cocktails columnist, you would think that this would have been caught.
Hayley Powell is a single mother barely able to keep the leaky roof over her two adolescent children when an opportunity arises to take over the food column at her newspaper. Being the office manager, she has no journalism experience, but when the bills are piling up and an opportunity opens, she does what any mother would do – she grabs the chance and runs with it. Unfortunately, she runs right into Karen Applebaum, a columnist for a competing paper, and when Karen prints a recipe stolen from Hayley, the gloves are off.
In this instance, “gloves are off” is translated into a baked goods food fight in the public library and Hayley hissing “Or else I might just have to kill you.”
Of course, she did not mean it literally, but all mysteries have to start somewhere and when Karen’s body shows up – all fingers and spatulas are pointed at Hayley.
There are good parts of this book, the library scene reads very well, the individual newspaper columns are interesting and Hayley Powell is a very likeable character, I just do not known if these three points are enough to bring me back to this series in the future.
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