Mushroom Capped: Fatal Food Festival Mysteries Book 2

Fatal Food Festival Mysteries #2

by Cathy Wiley

At the Conway Mushroom Festival, former celebrity chef turned food festival judge Jackie Norwood looks forward to a weekend of gourmet delights and friendly competition.

But the festivities take a dark turn when a controversial figure is found dead and Jackie's old friend Marshall becomes the main suspect.

Jackie, along with her friends, stirs through secrets and suspicions in a race to find the real killer.

Mushroom Capped is a delicious blend of humor, intrigue, and mouth-watering mushroom recipes that will leave you craving more. This is a follow-up to Claws of Death, but can be read alone.

180 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 13, 2023

About the author

Cathy Wiley is the author of the Fatal Food Festival series, featuring a former celebrity chef who's trying to regain her career. There have been three short stories in this series published in the Destination Murders anthologies, and the first full-length novel, Claws of Death, will come out on July 29th.

She’s also written two other mystery novels set in Baltimore, Maryland, and has had almost a dozen short stories included in anthologies, one of which was a 2015 finalist for a Derringer Award.

She lives outside of Baltimore with one spoiled cat and an equally spoiled husband. For more information, visit www.cathywiley.com.

Reviews

[Christine (christines_booked) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another cute cozy mystery featuring our heroine, former celebrity chef Jackie Norwood.

[Sue Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like the author's cousin, I also detest mushrooms. Most of all, I hate the way they feel in my mouth! So the food in this case was not to my liking. However, I like the characters and the mystery was well constructed to keep the reader guessing! Needless to say, I won't be trying any of the recipes!

[Mark Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Former celebrity chef Jackie Norwood has landed in Conway, Maryland, for their second annual mushroom festival. She’s especially excited about connecting with her friend, Marshall. However, she quickly discovers that there’s lots of tension in town thanks to a big farming company trying to buy up the mushroom farms in the area. When Jackie finds the owner of the company dead, Marshall becomes the prime suspect. Can Jackie clear him?

I loved the first book in the series, and it was great to be spending time with Jackie again. All of her family and friends from the last book are back as well. While it would have been nice to see a bit more development for them, I still enjoyed spending time with them and loved the humor they brought to the story. The story started quickly, and when I reached the end, I appreciated just how the clues and motives were layered into the story. I was engaged the entire time, and the ending made perfect sense. If you like mushrooms, you’ll be interested in the five delicious sounding recipes at the end of the book. This is looking to be a great culinary cozy mystery series, and I’m looking forward to finding out what happens at Jackie’s next festival.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.