Dying for Dinner by Miranda Bliss
Dying for Dinner is a cozy mystery. For those who don’t know what 
a cozy mystery is, and I was one, it is a mystery where the murder is normally not shown and any sex is off the page. Think “Murder She Wrote” for those old enough to have seen the television series. G-rated. The detective is nearly always an amateur sleuth who discovers the body or is in some way related to the victim. In this story the heroine is Annie, who has just switched jobs to work for hunk, Jim. She has a talent for solving murder mysteries, which Jim encourages. Those are plus points for him. She has a best friend, Eve, who is the opposite of down-to-earth Annie, with glamour and lots of boyfriends. One of Eve’s former boyfriends is the local cop. Another reason to solve the mystery without involving him. Annie is debating a serious relationship with Jim because of her cheating ex-husband. This story revolves around finding a missing witness and friend, who has a lot of secrets in his past. Bliss introduces the characters with enough detail to set each one apart. The story builds slowly but turns high speed toward the end with a satisfying ending. If you’re thinking of writing a cozy mystery, this would be a good one to read to understand how the genre is written. The book also contains cooking advice and recipes, another characteristic of cozy mysteries.
Laura Freeman, author 