Dead Before Dinner

Maddie Swallows Mysteries #1

by Kat Bellemore

Green chile has never been more dangerous.

Maddie Swallows had always intended to be a psychologist. But becoming a wife, mother, and tenured professor—that was more than she’d ever dreamed. Until it all implodes and she finds herself without a job, divorced, and a single mom to two teenagers.

Despite needing a therapist of her own, Maddie returns to her New Mexican hometown to open her own therapy office.

Except, she’d forgotten how difficult it had been growing up in a small town, and returning as a forty-year-old woman doesn't make it any easier.

When Maddie is invited to a New Year’s Eve dinner party, she’s reluctant to go, but determines it would be better than staying home--she can’t hide from town gossip forever.

Until a member of the town council winds up dead before they've even had appetizers and everyone at the party is suspect.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Ebooks, Contemporary, Amazon

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 18, 2022

Reviews

[Be happy!!! Eat Bread!!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

the cautionary tale of how hunger can impair your ability to distinguish between incompatible snacking combinations while you wait for dinner... how preordering takeout can save lives...

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun mystery with an interesting premise of a divorced woman returning to her hometown and opening a new therapy office with her good friend. Her teenage kids aren't thrilled to have moved, but they seem more interested when they start helping their mom investigate a murder. It was a little hard keeping track of all the characters at first since there are a lot of different residents in the town who are witnesses and suspects. However, I enjoyed the entertaining story and was surprised when the resolution of the murder was revealed. I would be interested in reading more books in this series.

[Kyeli Sky · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick easy read - I did not see the ending coming!

[Debra B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't know what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised and look forward to reading more about Maddie's adventures!

[Emmalynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad debut

[Tannya D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maddie Swallows.

A woman who’s educated, a loving mom, a devoted friend, freshly divorced, an about to start life over.
Returning to her hometown was supposed to be cathartic, however she’s met with town gossip, old rivalries, and a meddling mother. Making matters worse, she becomes suspected of murder along with fellow guests of a New Years dinner party!

Maddie has to deal with too many suspects, a town Sheriff that has her own self-angst, and her own curiosity that may just kill the cat. Did I mention her cat, Ava, hates her?

Her need to fix situations and people being natural, she decides to asks questions and “help” with the investigation.

Will she be successful, or will the entire calamity in her small New Mexico town “swallow” her up instead? (See what I did there? Lol!)

I had the privilege of being an Advanced Copy Reader (ARC), and received this book as a free read in exchange for my honest opinion. I enjoyed the way the writer portrays her characters and the situations that they are in. Nothing is completely obvious. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably closer to a 3.5 but as always, I rounded up. This was a typical cozy mystery. Overall, I enjoyed it. I thought Maddie was a good protagonist. The mystery was okay. My main problem was I found some of the side characters annoying. I am not sure I will continue time will tell.

[Carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great clues

I thought I had the mystery figured out in the beginning. I kind of did, but then another murder happened! I was surprised who the second murderer was.

[Jill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf

[Emily Pennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who Killed Mrs. Bailey ? . . .

Maddie Swallows studied to be a psychologist and her life was going well. Then she lost her job, divorced her husband, and moved back to her small town in New Mexico with her kids and her friend, Trish. Her daughter is unhappy about the move away from friends and her father. Maddie is planning to open her own practice with Trish and is reminded about small town gossip and its damaging effects as everyone mumbles that she will no doubt fail. She would have to prove them wrong.

Attending a New Year’s Eve dinner party, Maddie hears a commotion and finds Mrs. Marci Bailey lying on the floor by the dining room table. Maddie gets to her just in time to hear Mrs. Bailey whisper, “You said you’d done your research,” and then she died. Dr. Harris arrived, shocked when Maddie told him the victim was dead, having only been told she had a tumble from her chair. He lifted the tablecloth they had covered the body with. Since he hadn’t replaced it over her face, Maddie approached and saw something wasn’t right. The victim’s face was swelling, her lips already 3 times their normal size as if she had an allergic reaction. And apparently everyone in town, except Maddie apparently, knew that Marci was deathly allergic to nightshade vegetables such as tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, and even chili powder. When someone pointed out that no one had eaten yet, Trish asked if it could be a poison that could mimic that type of reaction?

Instead of Sheriff Andersen arriving, Sheriff Potts arrived and starts looking at Maddie as a suspect. So Maddie decides to investigate on her own and clear her name. Will she get the townspeople to open up to her and provide some clues? Can she find out who really murdered the unpleasant Marci Bailey?

[Sucheta Chatterjee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty average, as far as detective novels go.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cozy contemporary mystery set in New Mexico. Main character is a divorced psychologist/professor who moved back to her hometown with her two children to start a private practice. But the people that she remembers from her hometown have changed, and so has the climate of this small community.

[Lara Hensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read, cute and fun

[Vickie Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good story.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

good book but virtual voice did not help

I liked the book but I was not a fan of the virtual voice. Read it instead. I switched in the middle

[Ericka N.Blackwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh

This was easy to get through as the author invested no time in developing these characters. There was very little backstory on any of these folks to be able to care one way or another about who died or who did it. There's A moment when the heroine says, 'I don't know these people' and at 64% of the way through I thought 'same'!

This is not a crime procedural as the Sheriff has a few appearances in this story. You'd think a key character, but no.

It's not bad but it wasn't worth it. The ending was good, again, never saw it coming but there was so much missing, I don't think I could have come to this conclusion.

[Tess Ailshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has the makings of a good series, with professional women who respect each other. Unlike many cozy mysteries, we don't see dumb female characters who fail to respect others' work. As an intro novel, this one sets up the series nicely, introducing characters well and providing enough context for future stories.

I wasn't thrilled with the ending. Yes, I understand this is the lead-in to a series of stories, but the "stay tuned to see what happens next" ending turned me off a bit.

I got this volume from a free Kindle app; I'm not planning to buy the remaining volumes.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maddie and her friend moved back the little town she used to live in. She wanted to open a therapist business. She had 2 teens who lived with her some time and her X husband had them other days. She was having a hard time getting the town to accept her business in their town. So she went to a party just to see who really didnt want her business in town. A woman dies at the party and she get kinda blamed for her death. She then tries to figure who did her herself. And of course her two teens tried to help her investigate.

[Mary Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

We lived in New Mexico for 11 years. That's why I bought and read this title. I was disappointed. I found NOTHING (except for green chiles) to indicate specific New Mexican ambiance. What about the gorgeous sky?! How about mountains wherever you look? Margaritas?

Furthermore, Maddie Swallow just didn't capture me. She could have been anywhere doing her counseling. And I found her to be lacking in her sleuthing skills.

Sorry. This is the only Bellemore I've read, but I won't venture into her waters again.

[Donna Bagby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting whodunit that I enjoyed. The teens were very technically capable and helped (on the sly).

[Juliet Minerva Swift · Rating 2 out of 5]

This year I have read way too many novellas that introduce a series, loved it, and then disliked the first actual novel. And this is another one to add to that list.

The first feeling I had was annoyance. Why is everyone so pressed she “abandoned” the town? Like that’s not a thing, she moved away like many do. I also come from a small town and still no one cares. That’s the thing. No one gives a fuck if you go somewhere else and come back. There is definitely no weird stigma for people who went to uni somewhere else since the small town doesn’t have it??? Actually, the people in the small town never really get the fact that you moved away permanently, but keep thinking you are away for a bit, and at some point you will be back, which is also very common to do. Even after 10 years of me living abroad, everyone still asks me when I will be back.

So it is so ridiculous that they all gang up on Maddie because she “acted as if she was too good for them” like lol. Also the two baddies are way too bad it’s cartoonish, and it seems absurd to me that a psychologist who was also in academia is all skittish and shy and can’t even talk but just crawl away all embarrassed. When questioned by the sheriff, she is so reluctant to talk about how her husband was mean to her and therefore she left since divorce is not unusual nor suspicious. This was only one of the issues in the first encounter with the sheriff. Literally Maddie was away for years (as we are constantly reminded) so she wouldn't have been aware of the dead woman's allergies. Debbie also didn't tell Maddie who the guests were, so how exactly could she have known to bring food when she didn't know the woman or her allergies or that she would attend?

The mystery itself could've been okay, but it was so simple and Maddie was literally struggling to put together a jigsaw puzzle made of two pieces. Literally the sheriff asked Maddie and she just forgot to mention that most people had started eating shit before the dinner. Maddie and Debbie were also in the kitchen together, so maybe it would be good to investigate what the others were doing in the other room, where the woman died.

The victim herself was not without blame. She went to scavage in the fridge and ate something random, which you DO NOT DO when you have a deadly allergy. No one in their right mind would. And also, where is the EpiPen? There is no mention of it, no question as to why she didn't carry one, or if someone stole it on purpose. Also, from the very start it is clear that Debbie didn't make all the food, especially the pastries which were the only food the victim ate. Why didn't she immediately say she didn't make them??? Was she really going to end up in jail just to cover for someone else? Was she really so ashamed she had not made all the food? I think there were way too many plot holes and characters' actions and motivations didn't make sense to me.

Moreover, academia is not like that. And yeah maybe the US is different than the UK, but at my latest conference, all Americans were dressed for the beach, and during a presentation one showed a photo of the Taylor Swift concert he went the weekend before, and we all ended up dancing drunk to Shake it off so man this depiction of stuck up people in cocktail dresses showing off is sooo wrong.

The writing was not bad at all, and the potential of the plot was good, but the execution was not what I wanted, and I just didn’t enjoy the experience much.

[Denise Zendel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maddie Swallows and her two teenaged children move from Albuquerque, NM, to the fictional small town of Amor, NM, 400 miles south, give or take, to start over from a painful divorce. Maddie hopes to start a therapy practice in Amor, and frankly some of the residents could seriously use some therapy. An extremely unpleasant member of the town council dies at a dinner party thrown by one of Maddie’s old friends, and Maddie feels compelled to help.

I chose this book because of the setting (New Mexico), and the plot. I almost bailed out when someone at the dinner party referred to “posole” as “pozole.” I mocked the character hard – I always thought “pozole” was an affectation used by people who wanted to look smarter than they are. Nobody I know calls it “pozole,” but I googled it and found indeed that’s a correct term, mostly in Mexico. So I had to eat some of my words.

Maddie and her ex have a complicated relationship. He’s a therapist who specializes in serial killers and what makes them tick. He was also her department head at the unnamed large university in Albuquerque. (That gave me pause too, because I’m pretty sure that large, unnamed university has a nepotism policy.) But, this is fiction and I liked how Maddie treats her kids, and the relationship between Maddie and her mother, and Maddie and her bff, so I stuck with it.

Watching Maddie suss out who dunnit was interesting. And she ended up letting her kids help out (safely, of course). The daughter is a vlogger, and the son a budding hacker, and their skills helped Maddie save the day. I liked the book enough, that I bought book 2 in the series, Dead Upon Arrival, set at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Which the author refers to as a “balloon festival”. Nobody I know calls it that, except maybe people who use the term “pozole.” I like the characters enough that I’m going to go ahead and read it anyway.

[skketch · Rating 2 out of 5]

📚👩🌶NOVEL THOUGHTS🌶👩📚

This was a simple read about Maddie, a newly divorced woman who moves back to her childhood hometown with her two teenaged children and her best friend in order to start over as they open an office to practice counseling and psychology in this small town. Maddie is invited to a New Year's eve party one of her childhood friends is hosting along with several of the town council members who are denying her from opening up a free standing hair salon. This denial is orchestrated by one lady, Mrs. Bailey, who seems to hold all the power on the board. She is unliked by everyone in town and has another member in her pocket because she knows some secrets about him. All of these things come out when at the party, the woman drops dead and everyone at the party is considered suspect. Maddie decides to clear her name by doing some sleuthing and uses her training at reading people's body language and encouraging them by asking leading questions to find out who is the murderer. But it seems that Mrs. Bailey isn't the only victim of someone's rage when there is a second murder. Will everyone from the party become victims?
This is the first book in the Maddie Swallow series. It seemed to me that the author was setting things up, introducing characters and plot lines so that she could continue the series long term. I felt a little let down by the solution and that the way her children were incorporated in the story as her pseudo assistant detectives. Storylines seemed to go forward then seemed dropped and insufficiently finished. Nothing seemed fleshed out. As I said, it seemed like she is building for future books, not really stirring momentum for this one to get the reader to care to read others in the series. It was all just very flat to me.

[Geordie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maddie Swallows is a psychiatrist who, after her divorce, takes her two teenage kids back to her little home town to start life over again. She's just about to open a therapy office when she's embroiled in the murder of a town council-woman, and the various unpleasant accusations this involves.

This is a pretty darn good cozy mystery. Though there were various genre-standard cliches, I'm not going to argue with a book where I like the protagonist, and the reader isn't treated like an idiot. There are a lot of good characters, and the mystery was actually really good. I think the only down-side was, the interactions Maddie had with the town sheriff all made me cringe. The sheriff threw around accusations like she had never heard of the law, or repercussions. It never truly felt like Maddie was in danger of being arrested, just that the writer was trying to up the stakes by making the sheriff be unreasonably suspicious of her, and unreasonably willing to throw out public accusations willy-nilly. And then, as if realizing she's gone too far, the writer has this sheriff start trying to cozy up to Maddie and share info about the murder in hopes that Maddie might make more progress than the sheriff can. Holy smoke, every scene with this sheriff was painful and far-fetched!

I hope the writer reins things in in following books, not every cozy mystery needs to have the protagonist in danger of being arrested, OR be chummy with the local police (and having both, just strains believability!). But in all other ways, this was a good read, and I might just check out the next book in the series.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting story about a woman who returns to her hometown about 20 years after leaving. She brings her two teenage children with her after divorcing her husband. There are a lot of adjustment for all parties involved, including her mother who still lives in the small town.

Small town says it all. Everyone knows what's going on...or thinks they do because of gossip. In some ways this is good and some ways it is bad. Gossip is not always truth or accurate. This is something Maddie finds out very quickly because everyone has heard stories about her. Being an educated psychologist, she hopes to open a practice with her best friend, Trish. It turns out this is not easy, but not impossible, either.

Now the main story, for which is the title of the book, there is a mysterious death that Maddie experiences first hand. And when she meets the new police chief, she is skeptical that there will be an adequate investigation. Plus, when there is another mysterious death only 24 hours later, Maddie decides to look for the reason and the perpetrator.

Most of the book is absorbed in Maddie's quest for the truth, including the feathers she ruffles, the eagerness of her children to help and always her mother's involvement...sometimes a help, sometimes a hindrance. I'm sure you will enjoy reading what happens and how it changes Maddie's life, too.

[Lucy-Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

When psychologist Maddie Swallows goes through a divorce, she moves back to her home town with the intention of opening a new therapy office with her best friend, Trish. Returning to her hometown was supposed to be a new start, but she soon recalls the gossip, old rivalries, and a meddling mother.
Her teenage children aren't thrilled to have moved, but they seem more interested when they start helping their mom investigate a murder, where she seemed to be a prime suspect! Attending a New Year’s Eve dinner party, Maddie hears a commotion and finds Marci Bailey collapsed on the floor – dead.
As Maddie investigates, will she get the locals to open up to her and provide some clues? Can she find out who really murdered Marci Bailey?

There were a lot of names, and several characters didn’t really stand out from each other but the writing is decent enough and the ending is unexpected.

As the first in a series, the book gives enough introduction for future books, introducing characters well and providing enough context about people, places & past situations to inspire future stories.

Overall, a fun, quick cozy mystery that is entertaining & suits the genre well, but isn’t mind-blowing, new or exciting.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun cozy mystery. Plot-wise, briefly: Maddie, divorced mother of two teenagers, moves back to her original home-town in New Mexico, where she intends to open a therapy business with a friend who is also a therapist. Of course a member of the town council dies at a dinner party right away. The rest of the book is about the process of investigation, while Maddie also settles into town, reconnects with old friends, her mother, and so forth. The narrator has a solid, likeable voice. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how her children get involved in the investigation. Oh, the local sheriff is also female, newly arrived in town. Everyone has a past, and probably lots of secrets. This is the first book in a series of three, and I'm going to read the next one, which seems to pick up immediately after this ends.

This appears to be an indie publication, and well done. The writing and editing are both strong; copy-editing is excellent; I don't think I spotted any typos at all and nothing pulled me out of the story, so that's worth a golden rodent award.

Full disclosure: I obtained this as a freebie via Bookbub, from Amazon. I do not know the author.

[J Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

This dinner is to die for!

Maddie Swallows thought moving back to Amor, New Mexico with her children and best friend would mean a return to peace and safety in a small town after her divorce. That was before she found out how much Amor had changed. Criticism and gossip ruled now and opening a mental therapy office were going to be harder than she and Trish anticipated. She really didn’t feel like attending the New Year’s Eve dinner party but networking and renewing old friendships were important if their business was going to be successful. That was before one of the dinner guests dropped dead and Maddie became a prime suspect. If her children were going to grow up in Amor then Maddie was going to make sure there were no murderers living there.

This is the first mystery I have read by Kat Bellemore but I have always enjoyed her other books and this was no exception. It is a well-written cozy with a few hints of possible future romance for the series. I received an advance copy but my review is honest and voluntary.

[Javon50 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maddie Swallows has moved herself, her best friend and her teen children to the small town of Amor, New Mexico. Her daughter Lilly is angry that Maddie divorced her father and very angry that she now lives in a small town far away from her father and her friends in Albuquerque. Maddie and her best friend Trish plan on opening a therapy business but the gossip around town is that the business will fail. When attending a dinner party at the home of a friend, a woman drops dead before anyone has eaten and soon it is discovered that she was poisoned. When the new sheriff finds Maddie a person of interest in the case, Maddie finds herself asking questions of the town residents to the sheriff’s dismay. She is certainly not making friends in her hometown when she begins her own investigation in hopes of clearing her name. This is a great mystery with a very good storyline and engaging characters. This is my honest, voluntary review of an advanced reader copy of this book.

[Natelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Maddie Swallows moves back to her hometown, she just wants to get her psychiatrist practice started with her best friend Trish and distance herself from her ex husband. At the same time, she basically goes into seclusion to avoid old friends and new questions. Then Trish accepts an invite to a dinner party on her behalf and all other interests fade into the background when one of the guests eats something that disagrees with them. After meeting the new sheriff, Maddie decides to help out by using her psychiatrist skills to interview suspects. Her children and mother offer their assistance to the amateur sleuth. But are they putting themselves in danger? Will the murders stop at one body? Or does their agenda require more?

The story was kind of amusing though it felt like the sheriff would have responded differently to the ongoing interference. It also felt like someone would have commented on one of the last minute details about the attendees much sooner.