Death of a Gingerbread Man - Hayley Powell Mystery by Lee Hollis

Thank you to the authors, publishers, and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The recipe review and food pairing found on my Instagram feed are of my own doing.

Gingerbread Dead Man
A Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mystery
Lee Hollis
Kensington Cozies 

Imagine if your dad took off when you were eight years old and you hadn’t seen or heard from him for all those years. Now imagine that your best friends’ dads have been getting together with your dad for years to do some ice fishing, and you just walked in on them. There are no words for this, right! Talk about family drama for the holidays. The only person who is truly happy to see Dwight back is Hayley’s brother Randy, who was too young to really know what happened when their father left. Thank goodness Hailey knows how to make a great cocktail. Just check out her Island Food & Spirits newspaper column that often includes cocktail and food recipes. In addition to drinks and some comfort food, there are some great stories that provide excellent back stories that are highly entertaining.

As I said, no one is all that thrilled to see Dwight Jordan including Carroll Flood who claims that Dwight ruined his life and the opportunity to be a professional baker. Oddly enough, Dwight isn’t the victim, Carroll is. Since Dwight swears he didn’t do it, he begs Hayley to look into things. Christmas is a challenging time to be a sleuth and Hayley is balancing a business, her slightly difficult mom and boyfriend as houseguests, the usual holiday rush items, and saving Dwight’s life at least once. The list of suspects is longer than the guest list at King Charles’s coronation. So many suspects and so little time and this is a fast paced mystery with so many twists and turns that you have to keep turning pages to see how it all fits together. There are a good number of suspects and side characters that add different dimensions from serious to silly.    

In addition to great characters and a great plot, there are so many great recipes to choose from between the chapters. I settled on Bruce’s Ginger Garlic Chicken Wings but since the store was out of wings we made full sized drumsticks, half the work, and all the flavor. There is an Index of Recipes at the back of the book so you can pick a good one to make before you sit down to devour both the food and mystery.