A Catered PTA Murder

A Mystery with Recipes #20

by Isis Crawford

It’s back to school for sisters and caterers Bernie and Libby Simmons when a killer decides to teach a PTA president a lesson…

When Rita Sullivan walks into A Little Taste of Heaven to hire Bernie and Libby to cater a PTA board meeting and supply cakes for an end-of-school-year gala, it’s hard to believe she’s the same nerdy wallflower they knew in high school. Rita’s now an influencer and CEO of Lavish Lipsticks, a hot new cosmetics company. She’s also the president of the Longely Junior High School PTA, where she’s made a considerable number of enemies. When the sisters go to drop off the cakes, they find Rita lying on the floor with a knife in her chest. What’s more, using her company’s newest lipstick, Scarlet Shame, the killer has drawn a large red X across her body. Rita has been canceled.

The police zero in on Abby Roth, owner of the murder weapon, but her kids beg Libby and Bernie to clear their mom’s name. The sisters soon discover a quorum of suspects with motives to kill Rita, ranging from stolen cosmetics formulas and blackmail to broken marriages and property feuds. Figuring out which of them served Rita her just desserts will be anything but a piece of cake . . .

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery

320 pages, ebook

Published June 30, 2026

About the author

Isis Crawford was born in Egypt to parents who were in the diplomatic corps. When she was five, her family returned to the States, where her mother opened a restaurant in Upper Westchester County and her father became a university professor. Since then Isis has combined her parents’ love of food and travel by running a catering service as well as penning numerous travel-related articles about places ranging from Omsk to Paraguay. Married, with twin boys, she presently resides in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, where she is working on the next Bernie and Libby culinary mystery.

A pseudonym used by Barbara Block

Reviews

[Cozybooklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

#ACateredPTAMurder #NetGalley is another great adventure with sisters Libby and Bernie.
Providing cakes for the local PTA cake walk sounds like no problem, but we all know these sisters find themselves in hot water all the time.
A dead body in the walk in freezer, marital affairs and secrets are just a few of the complications Libby and Bernie run into in this story.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isis Crawford’s A Catered PTA Murder reminded me that nothing stirs up trouble faster than a PTA meeting with too many opinions and one very dead president. Kensington Cozies, thank you so much, along with NetGalley, for the gifted ARC.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“She’d been canceled.”

I’ve spent enough time with Bernie and Libby Simmons that opening a new book feels like catching up with old friends. Twenty books in, these sisters still make me laugh, and I never seem to tire of following them into another murder investigation.

This time they’re catering events for Rita Sullivan, a former classmate who reinvented herself as a beauty influencer and cosmetics CEO. She’s also managed to upset just about everyone around her. When Rita is found murdered with a bold lipstick X painted across her body, I knew the suspect list was going to be long.

The mystery kept me guessing because every conversation uncovered another secret. One minute I was convinced I’d figured it out, and the next I was pointing the finger at someone else. That’s my favorite kind of cozy mystery. It keeps moving without becoming confusing.

What I enjoyed most, though, wasn’t the crime. It was spending time with Bernie and Libby. Their sisterly teasing, loyalty, and easy chemistry are what make this series so dependable. The recipes sprinkled throughout the story didn’t hurt either. I definitely finished a little hungry.

If you enjoy cozy mysteries packed with small-town drama, family relationships, good food, and suspects with believable motives, this one is worth picking up. You don’t have to read the earlier books to enjoy it, but longtime fans will appreciate another visit with these familiar characters.

I closed the book smiling and thinking I’d happily accept another invitation into Bernie and Libby’s kitchen… as long as nobody finds another body. Have you ever kept reading a mystery series because the characters felt like old friends?

#ACateredPTAMurder #IsisCrawford #KensingtonCozies #CozyMystery

[icantcomeimbooked · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Catered PTA Murder — Isis Crawford

This was such a fun little cosy mystery!

I've really been getting into cosy mysteries lately and there's just something about murder mixed with small-town drama, secrets and food that makes them such an easy read

I really enjoyed the sister-sleuth aspect of this one and following Bernie and Libby as they got caught up in another murder investigation. I loved their relationship and banter and I always enjoy having more than one person trying to piece everything together.

The catering and food side was also such a cute addition. Apparently murder and baked goods just work really well together in books

There were plenty of secrets, drama and suspects to keep me guessing and I definitely changed my mind a few times about who I thought was behind everything.

3.75 stars from me

🔪 Murder mystery
🧁 Culinary cosy mystery
👯‍♀️ Sister sleuths
🏘️ Small-town drama
👀 Plenty of suspects
🤫 Secrets & drama
🍰 Catering & food
🔎 Amateur detectives
🧩 Whodunnit

If you love cosy mysteries with food, quirky characters and plenty of suspects, definitely give this one a go!

A huge thank you to Isis Crawford, the publishing team and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review A Catered PTA Murder.

[Esperanza · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25 | Unfortunately, I was not a fan of this. The premise seemed interesting enough and I thought this was going to be a fun, cozy mystery. But I really didn’t like the writing so it made it really hard to get through. There were a ton of unnecessary (in my opinion) details about the main characters’ days or their past. I thought maybe those details would have something to do with the mystery, but it didn’t - it just took me out of the reading experience. The dialogue also felt really stilted and unnatural. Lastly, the end didn’t feel satisfying and wrapped up too quickly.

This very clearly is not for me, but maybe others will enjoy it, especially if they’ve already read some of this series.

______
Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Catered PTA Murder is a solid entry for this long running series. If you picked up this book without reading previous titles, you wouldn't be lost. We had less interaction with supporting characters and the book centered mostly on the sisters and the people they encountered while solving the murder. The story moved along at a good pace but I found the ending disturbing though it ended well for the animals. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eArc in exchange for a review.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really went into this book with excitement after reading the blurb and whilst it did start off well the plot did taper out to becoming a massive info dump which derailed from the main crux of the story. The characters were all okay but none really stood out to me and the writing proved hard for me to gel with- a miss within the mystery genre.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for an arc.

[Taylor Kirby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I liked this book. I particularly enjoyed the banter between the two sisters however in terms of the pace of the plot, you pretty much solve everything in the last chapter which is six pages long and it jumps forward immediately after you solve the case so it's kind of like all that tension builds up for nothing. This was a cozy fun murder mystery read and I will read another book from this author as there are several books in this series.

[LittleRead · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading this series for a long time now and it just gets better with each and every entry. Each visit with Bernie and Libby is filled with a solid whodunit, sisterly shenanigans and lip licking recipes.

It’s not just a cosy series, it’s like visiting with friends and not wanting to miss the next visit…because I am already looking forward to the next entry in this this series.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing about this series that gets me is they have never tied up what happened with Sean and the gf he was with for all that time. They were getting married n then the whole storyline disappeared! What happened?!! The girls hated her and she hated them.
This one was good. It was such a weird reveal. But, I liked the story.

[Doreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/6/2026 I may finally be able to start telling the difference between the sisters? Full review with recipe photos tk at CriminalElement.com

[Susan Mattes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written as a running commentary; that style is not my favorite.

[LisaMarie Mercier · Rating 0.5 out of 5]

note to self: just DON'T with this .... no more *cozy Mystery* for me