Thank you to the authors, publishers, and NetGalley for providing these ARCs in exchange for honest reviews. The recipe reviews and food pairing found on my Instagram feed are of my own doing.
The Witless Protection Program
A Catering Hall Mystery
Maria DiRico
Kensington
This is the (sniff sniff) last book of
the Catering Hall mysteries and it is the spiciest one yet and includes a
baseball game proposal, a live louse/dead rate, a family/Family with no alibi,
and house that is a circus…man. Mia gets the proposal she has been obsessing
about but it is overshadowed by the appearance of Adam Grosso (yep the name
fits the character), her lying cheating missing husband who was presumed dead.
Before the Family (that’s right family with a capital “F” as in mob family) can
find Grosso so she can get a divorce, Grosso’s body is found in the back alley
near the house she shares with her Nonna. Detective Pete has a LOT of possible
suspects since no one truly has a verifiable alibi for the time period of the
hit and drag murder. Mia also has a list of suspects and a very strict
timeline. She is not going to let anything get in her way on the way down the
aisle. I do not think a single page was turned without a laugh out loud laugh
or at the very least, a chuckle. Mia and Shane fly from one coast to another in
a weekend to try and get to the bottom while the family/Family is doing their
best to locate people to question. Many people would agree that the guy had it
coming and even more would wonder what in the heck was Mia thinking. Thankfully
they are smart enough to keep their pizza pie holes shut. The crazy becomes
cray-cray when Nonna, who has learned to be a successful day trader (is there
anything Nonna can’t do, besides eat Vietnamese food), purchases the house
across the street that belonged to a recently deceased and famed comic book
creator, better known as Circus-Man. The fans are crazy, like flying monkey
crazy which gives an all new meaning to the phrase “not my monkey not my
circus,” but since Mia and Shane are the new owners, it is their circus house.
The fan club members want the house to be a museum so there is a bit of a jam,
literally, a traffic jam on Mia’s street. Can Mia’s life get anymore over the
top? This story is served up with a side of sassiness and some really good
Italian food so be sure to check out the recipes at the back of the book, like
the Ricotta Cookies or the Breakfast Pasta. I will miss the Catering Hall gang; it was fun
getting to know each and every character, and I place special emphasis on the
word character. I give this one all the stars plus one more.
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