ARC Review: Public Anchovy #1 by Mindy Quigley

Public Anchovy #1
Author: Mindy Quigley
Series: Deep Dish Mysteries (Book 3)
Publication: St. Martin's Paperbacks (December 26, 2023)

Description: Public Anchovy #1 is the third book in Mindy Quigley's delectable Deep Dish Mystery series, set in a Wisconsin pizzeria.

While Geneva Bay’s upper crust gets ready to party down at a Prohibition-themed fundraiser, pizza chef Delilah O’Leary is focused on seeing her struggling restaurant through the winter slow season. The temperature outside is plummeting, but Delilah’s love life might finally be heating up, as hunky police detective Calvin Capone seems poised to (finally) make a move.

But Delilah’s hopes of perfecting a new “free-from” pizza recipe for a charity bash are dashed when a dead body crashes the party. Soon, Capone, Delilah, and her entire staff are trapped in an isolated mansion and embroiled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

To catch an increasingly-desperate killer, Delilah will have to top all of her previous crime-solving accomplishments, and a few pizzas, too.

My Thoughts: The third in the Deep Dish Mysteries has Delilah and her crew catering a library fundraiser at the home on the in-coming chair of the Library Board. Delilah's hoping that this event leads to lots more catering bookings to help her business survive when it isn't tourist season in Geneva Bay. 

A last-minute request for a free-from pizza for one of the potential investors almost derails her hopes. She needs to make a delicious pizza without gluten, dairy, or anything from the nightshade family which includes tomatoes. And she has just a couple of hours to come up with something. 

Delilah doesn't have time to listen to the cryptic utterances of the out-going Board Chair. She's always thought that he was a bit weird even though her best friend Sonya is friends with him. She's too worried about her pizza and meeting the mother of the man she is interested in and who seems interested in her but hasn't made a move yet. 

When she and most of the rest of the guests watch Edgar Clemmons fall to his death down a flight of steep stairs, she wishes that she would have paid more attention to the message he was trying to give her. The fall was more likely murder than a tragic accident. Luckily, police detective Calvin Capone was in attendance playing the piano for his mother's singing when the crime happened because the bad weather is keeping the rest of the police from being able to get to the isolated mansion. 

Delilah and her crew are forced to spend the night along with an assortment of guests of the event while they wait for the police to get to them. An attack on Sonya and the murder of the head librarian means that the killer is one of the remaining people at the event. Delilah is determined to discover the killer to protect herself and her friends while Calvin is all for working slowly and methodically so that evidence can lead to the arrest and prosecution of the killer. 

This was an entertaining and twisty cozy mystery. I enjoyed meeting the characters and liked the setting. I might even try one of the recipes included at the end of the book. 

Favorite Quote:

"I will demand this of them," Jarka said.

I grimaced, hoping "demand this of them" was just a poor translation of "cheerfully motivate them."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.