Ambitious Protagonist and Mouthwatering Soul Food
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Murder with Fried Chicken and Waffles
By A.L Herbert
Kensington
ISBN: 978-1-4967-0502-0
Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Murder With Fried Chicken and Waffles was first released in 2015, but has been re-released this year in mass paperback form. I don't know how I missed this book the first time around but I am glad I caught it now. The author, A.L. Herbert has given readers a  mystery with a likable protagonist in Mahalia Watkins.

Halia, as shes known to her friends, took a chance and opened an upscale restaurant serving soul food  in Prince Georges County Maryland. Being a life long resident of the county she wanted folks to be able to go out for a nice meal without having to drive into Washington. By all appearances, her gamble has paid off. Mahalias Sweet Tea is packed most days for both lunch and dinner. They come for the fried chicken and waffles, macaroni and cheese, corn casserole and airy light biscuits and stay for the banana pudding and red velvet cake. The fly in the ointment was that Mahalia had to borrow some money from one smooth talking Marcus Rand to open her restaurant. This leaves her at his beckoned call. So when Marcus comes by asking for special dinner items for his guests, no matter how inconvenient she feels she must oblige.

If only the special menu items were the only problems Marcus brought down on Mahalias Sweet Tea.  But sadly it isnt. That fast talking smooth operator ended up dead on the kitchen floor of the restaurant apparently clunked on the head by one of Mahalias heavy duty cast iron skillets. If the body is found in the restaurant, the restaurant might be closed for days as a crime scene. And the customers! Would people still come to a place where a person was found murdered? On impulse, Mahalia and her cousin Wavonne lug the body outside and down the alley to behind the bookstore. Problem solved right? Wrong. From there the story takes off with plenty of twists and turns until Mahalia figures out who killed Marcus.

There are plenty of reasons to love this book. The protagonist, her cousin and mother are all very likable, well defined characters. The three of them make up a household that will resonate with some readers. In some families, adult children live with an aged parent to help out and for everyone to save money.  Mahalia is a strong, ambitious African American-a character mostly missing from the cozy genre. She runs a highly successful business but she hasn't forgotten where she came from. She employs her less than reliable cousin Wavonne to help keep her on the straight and narrow. She chose to put her restaurant in her home community so the town could have something nice. Mahalia is a person of character.

The mystery-who killed Marcus, takes some interesting turns. Mahalia is perhaps a bit more vested in finding the killer than some because Wavonne acts impulsively and ends up as a suspect so Mahalia is trying to solve the case to get Wavonne off the hook. If I have any quibble at all with the book, it is that the author didn't really give readers ample clues to solve the murder completely, but the end solution does make sense.

Cozies are often set around food establishments, but this is the first that I am aware of with soul food as the focus. I have to say, as a bit of a foodie, my mouth was watering reading the descriptions of the food. There are recipes sprinkled throughout the book. I hadnt even finished reading the book when I tried out the cornbread recipe and it is melt in your mouth good. The fried chicken has a surprising ingredient and the banana pudding has a different twist to it from what I have made before. Both are on my try list in the near future.

Murder with Fried Chicken and Waffles is a wonderful start to a series. I know there is a second book already out, and I hope there are many more to follow.

I received this book from the publisher for review.
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Sheer buzz compelled me to buy BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, even though I usually refrain from buying new hardcovers and often shy away from bestsellers, having quirky tastes. This book, however, did not disappoint. Rather, it has cemented in my mind what I now consider one of the unfailing, essential truths of its genre: good fantasy isn't about the magical, but the mundane.

What do I mean by that? Think about it. When you read fantasy, particularly that set in the modern world, you expect a balance between the normal and the paranormal. But it's more than that. Too many boring grocery-shopping and tooth-brushing scenes, and the reader chucks the book against the wall. Too many arbitrary rules of magic and weirdly random creatures, and the reader stops caring. The key, I believe, is when the fantastic abstracts and amplifies the ordinary. In a nutshell, fantasy is one big metaphor that allows us to feel our ordinary lives more vividly. BEAUTIFUL CREATURES demonstrates this brilliantly.

What I love most about this book: not the magic, curses, and creatures, but the way the authors detail the small-town life of Gatlin, South Carolina, right down to the gravy and biscuits Amma cooks, the way everyone in Gatlin talks about the Civil War as if it happened yesterday, and the yearning Ethan feels to escape this Southern tradition and small-mindedness. Amma's cooking ability is echoed by her ability to cook up voodoo; the Civil War, by ancient conflicts between the magical families of Casters; the small-mindedness, by the way people treat the clearly different, magically gifted girl Lena.

Reading this book is like eating a layer cake. You get a big bite of real Southern life, then a taste of magic that isn't overwhelmingly strong or sweet. These two flavors perfectly complement each other. Take out the magic, and you would still have a good novel, but perhaps not a great one. Take out the mundane, and the magic wouldn't have nearly the same resonance. The whole effect is of an expertly crafted metaphor about love overcoming prejudice, and whether your past determines your future. All mixed up in one batch of Southern Gothic.

I won't go into much of the plot, since it's a long book and most of the fun comes from discovering all its secrets. I will, however, highly recommend you try a taste of BEAUTIFUL CREATURES. I found it delicious.
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Take one witty female celebrity chef who happens to be a vampire, mix in a snarky annoying human bent on becoming eternal, a drool-worthy supernatural assassin who makes Brad Pitt look like a geek, a huge threat to the Shadowlands creatures, not to mention glorious food and youve got a five-star delight.

Imagine if you were a vampire and what you lusted after was the one thing you couldn't have. Not that, readers. Im talking about food. Contessa loves food and she is one talented chef. Shes one of the uber-famous chefs on television (think Bobby Flay) and everyone loves her. Everyone that is, except her associate producer.

Contessa is backed into a corner with her fangs exposed and she doesnt know what to do. She seeks the guidance of her friend who reluctantly gives her the number of an assassin, a vampire killer. One look at him and she melts.

Now, Contessa is having second thoughts about suicide and falling hard for Rocco, the man she hired to kill her. Will she follow her heart and realize that life is sweet or will death be her only alternative?

I adored this book! Its a quick read and more addictive than my husbands four-meat marinara. Fast-paced, quirky dialogue and a sweet paranormal romance, Midnight Delight will delight your reading taste buds. I cant wait to read the next installment in the series!

Favorite Character:

Contessa. I loved everything about her from her flair in front of the camera to her pleading with Rocco to kill her. Her thoughts range from the completely insane to loveable and sometimes in the same sentence. I loved how real she is and she reminded me a little of Darla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Shes a vampire with a serious problem and no solution in sight. I hope the author writes more books featuring Contessa.

Favorite Quote:

His blood flooded my mouth and silenced the howling emptiness in my middle. I savored the taste. After all, John J. s blood was infused with the spices Id used in my dishes. How can that be, you ask? I don't precisely know, but like that smoked water thing an award winning British chef developed a few years back, when the right person ingests the correct spices and seasonings, voila! You have gourmet blood fit for the most discriminating vampire. ~Contessa

My Rating: 5 stars
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This book has so much that ticked all my boxes- Angela is a strong woman, Flynn is adorable, there are  lots of delicious descriptions of food (recipes included), a group of interesting new friends (with secrets) and a setting that is new to me (I must visit Acadia National Park).

As someone who has planned events, I found that part of the story fascinating. And any book that has food at its core, if it is well done like this is, will always appeal to me. I also liked that the characters are not one-dimensional (except the wicked stepmother). Angela's boyfriend Richard could have been the stock guy-who-is-really-a-jerk, but Kline gives him shades of color that made him more interesting.

The relationships- Angela and Nonna, Angela and Flynn, Angela and Lindsay- are so believable, you wish you were Angela. I will warn you that The Way Life Should Be will inspire you to dig out all of your food utensils and give Angela's recipes, like Pasta e Fagioli, Chicken Marsala and Basil Marinara, a try.

When Tom asks Angela who she really is, she thinks "the stories we tell about ourselves are filled with half-truths, distorted recollections, and blind spots as well as occasional moments of insight. It's all in the spin, isn't it?" And, I for one, liked the spin of Angela's story.
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How can a novel narrated by Death and set in Nazi Germany be uplifting?

It's a question I've been pondering since I finished THE BOOK THIEF several days ago, and while I can point to Death's macabre humor and unique sensory experience of the world, I can name the feisty adolescents and silly swearing housewives, I think what most strikes me is the care given to souls through this unusual narrator, whether or not those souls are worthy.

Human worth is explored in great depth in this novel, and the protagonist, a young German girl named Liesel, her foster parents, the Jewish man they hide, and Liesel's best friend, Rudy, are all terribly human and dazzlingly worthy. Zusak has created an intricately connected world of characters real enough to step out of the pages of the book. This is a novel of courage, pain, sin, and redemption, and as my friend who recommended THE BOOK THIEF said to me, "You will never see the world quite the same once you've read it."

I must agree with this statement, and I highly recommend THE BOOK THIEF to anyone interested in fiction that transcends style and genre to create a story that touches the core of what it means to be human. THE BOOK THIEF is one of those novels that lingers with the reader, and makes one's heart feel larger for having read it.
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I happened upon this book on a lark.  A couple seconds of flipping through the pages got me intrigued.

Luciano, the young street urchin of the late 1490's who has dreams of exploring the New World, steals a pomegranate at a market stall, and is waylaid by a chef who takes him on as apprentice in the palace kitchen, explaining his interest in the lad as being enhanced because he'd stolen a pomegranate, of all the things to steal.

Venice and Rome are filled with ne'er-do-wells and corrupt figures in all levels of society.  Palace life is no exception, this being the era of the Borgias, among others.  And of great importance is a book, a book sought for the alchemical possibility of promoting immortality, or perhaps for other reasons of political gain, depending on the seeker.

Of course, Luciano will get pulled into the intrigue, along the way learning both about himself, and about the society around him.  This book is very well written, and although its themes once or twice overlap with The DaVinci Code, this book is far superior on many levels, including being better-written.  Elle Newmark knows the language, and knows nuance.  The characters are well-drawn and we care about them.  The discussions are not typically black and white, but are designed to make one think.

Oh, and yes, the food.  You can get hungry for an entire delectable meal of real foods just reading what goes on in the kitchen.

This is a great author.  I look forward to reading more by her.
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To consume, such a glutinous statement. We hear it all the time, "Oh I am so full, I think I consumed enough for two people!" or that ever oh so dramatic thing that many of us are guilty of letting out, "I am consumed with rage or hate, with remorse or with love. We consume and are consumed every day with emotions, struggling each day and choosing to react or respond to these desires. For most of us, we keep a tap on the hedonistic pleasure of our consumption, whether it be bacon, chocolate or a second pumpkin spice caramel macchiato or not calling for the fifth time that afternoon just to say I love you. However, most of us do not have a power that spans beyond regular impulse, a power embedded and written into our genes that does not allow us to stop and those that do (raising and eyebrow) we have partners, family and friends that pull us back from the brink and set our bottle of darkness behind the dusty record player and bathe us in healthy things to do and to consume which eat up those unrealistic urges and needs.

This is a tale about being consumed by love. Between the two people who are the center of the story, each are consumed and are consuming each other in one form or another. It is a codependency of epic proportions. As dark and horrific as it is at base level, Pavarti K. Tyler has shown her talent to weave with words the passion so many of us feel for our true loves in such a startling and densely dark tale. Their love proves the age old belief of love can conquer anything, no matter what others may argue or say. Even if it is learning to truly conquer something, you must allow it to consume you. In a realistic world this could and usually is true. I am a believer of stripping everything down to a base level to start building things back up, and when it comes to relationships, and illness of the body, mind, soul or as is with this couple, all of the above. You have a fair to chance. Does this couple make it? Are their choices healthy or is there something more between the lines of this horrifying and beautiful tale? You will have to determine that on your own. You will have to go and grab it for a dark and dreary, preferably with your wooby and a jigger of whiskey added to your tea. Personally, I found them quite successful in their endeavor.

Recommended for those that like their horror dark, like their erotica off kilter and darker and have the brains to read between the lines.
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This book will make you hungry. It will make you want to get together with your girlfriends to chat and just enjoy each others company. It will also make you dream of fancy dinners on a balcony with a fantastic view of a sunset that seems to have come out from a painting.

Carla Laureano graciously dwelled into sensitive subjects and gently brought into topics currently trending that, as much as they promise justice, in my opinion, are actually drawing a dangerous line between "them and us". The author discreetly dwelled into this (it may not even have been her intention, but it made me think about this), without naming anything, but just challenging the pillars of life we stand upon about What is it mean to be equal? does finding for space in an easy-to-discriminate-world always means choosing opposite sides or is there a balanced partnership to be found?

Rachel Bishop is a talented award-winning cook. She's all in when it comes to her job. It takes up her full life and she's fine living this way. She has found safety in the kitchen since it once sheltered her during a difficult time in her life, and since then she has never looked back, only kept going, kept fighting to grow as a chef. So she has a sense of security in her work that makes her capable of ignoring coarse opinions and confident enough to not have to advertise her personal image too much to attract clients. She knows the quality of her food will keep people coming.

But this supposedly discreet side of her hides an insecurity so deep she might not even be aware of how much it has been keeping her from truly living. Until one day she loses everything and has to rebuild her career, her reputation, and her influence. What she doesn't expect is that the perfect person to help her do so is talented writer Alex Kanin, whose essay actually got her in trouble in the first place.

Their relationship built slowly but surely. It was endearing and sweet. But, as much as Rachel saw her walls coming down whenever she was around Alex, she still questioned when disappointment would come and she would wake up from this wonderful dream. Still, once you get to truly know yourself and feel a sense of peaceful rightness, she might just see where success authentically stands on, and discover that fallbacks and failure can be dealt with so much grace and hope to allow you to dream again.
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This novel is like eating a bowl of ice cream with fresh strawberries: you feel less guilty indulging in fiction because there are lots of intellectual vitamins sprinkled on top. Kind of like a Robin Cook story with supercharged character development. (Cook, a doctor, incorporates medical issues and ethics into his plots but his characterizations can be somewhat stilted.) Picoult tells the story from a first person point of view that switches around along with the book's type font, so that you get to peek into the mind of teens, of parents, of former lovers, of different sides of the same events, until you find yourself rooting for everybody involved. Flew through the book in a weekend. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is my personal preference for lighter, upbeat escapist material. Not a feel-good story, but would make for rich debates in a book club or English class.
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This distinctive work begins and ends with the initial protagonist, Ziva, an intelligent, observant, Eastern European woman displaced from her initially unspecified country of origin. The work overall relates with dystopian acalarity her and a circle of acquaintances sometimes naive, sometime acutely insightful, mostly painful attempts to make a new life while holding on to her identity. She accomplishes the latter by reading and interpreting patterns in the bottom of coffee cups; hence, the connection to the intriguing and apropos title, GRIND, coffee being an irresistible, binding force that ultimately brings together the numerous interrelated vignettes.

The dialog from beginning to end is rich and robust, constantly tantalizing the reader to meld with the various protagonists and live the world through their eyes in the current situation (which changes throughout the book). The narration is rich, sometimes raw and dark, imparting a delicious edge to the characters and overall read.

About a third of the way through, the narrator abruptly shifts and thence continues shifting from one related character to another. Initially disconcerting as each new narrator/character adds his or her unique perspective to the growing storyline, at about two thirds of the way through the work, the story coalesces into a tale so engrossing, it becomes impossible to put the book down.

Occasional misspellings, awkward punctuation, and abrupt transitions detracted from the read, but, in their own way, added to the work a sense of stream-of-consciousness authenticity. The author's constant use of first person present tense for the narrator's voice, occasional references to the reader as "you," and the use of often unnecessary expletives made the narration sometimes briefly off-putting to me, though on occasion they added poignancy. It seemed in these moments as if the reader were being offered a salacious peek into the mind of each narrator/character, and by implication perhaps, the author's own personal, mental diary.

"Baba Zlata once told me that the images in the coffee are reflections of those that drink from the cup, echoes of their thoughts and feelings left by their lips" so, grab a hot cuppa, and with novella in hand, enjoy the rich sensations and gut-level emotions that coffee and this book promise and invariably deliver. This is definitely an author to follow.
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This book weaves a food adventure story that will connect you to its characters in many unexpected ways. I spent hours enthralled and found myself hugging the book once I finished. A great read for the foodie and a great read for the wholesome complexity of life.
1259844
The main character, Jonah, lives the life of so many: he works too much, does something he hates, mostly observed people he dislikes and has nothing to look forward to in his life. Jonah has a dream, though, he loves to write and wants to be a writer, even if his writing always stops half way through his book. This unhappy life comes to a sharp turn in the road the moment he learns that he is not like everybody else, when he finds out that he is special in so many ways, that even among special people he stands out, for he has a greater gift than the others. He meets new friends, mostly, but he learns he has also enemies, who would do so much to kill him that he is forced to learn how to fight. Jonah grows and learns more about himself than he thought would be possible and changes his attitude for good, changing virtually everything in his life and coming to terms with most of his issues.
I liked it, this is not a typical fantasy novel, there aren't any dragons or monsters, except for the people who put so much effort in destroying Jonah. This is a book about spirits and it is also spiritual in so many ways, that it becomes even philosophical in some points. I really enjoyed the deeper meaning it gives to the concepts of life and death, there is a certain spiritual flow that encloses the characters, especially the more positive ones, while the antagonists almost completely lack it, defining from the very beginning their fate.
The pace of the narration follows the mood of the main character quite well, the reader feels the drag of the beginning, the urgency of the chases and is forced to read on until the very last line of the story.
Thank you T.H. Morris, it has been fun and a true inspiration.
4934989
Danny Skinner, an Environmental Health Officer at Edinburgh City Council is a young man of some merit, but ever more inclined to squander his nights at the local pub, on the fast track to his own destruction. Skinner is currently reading a book by a local chef, Adam de Fretais, The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs, purporting that the master chef is an alchemist, a magician, "his concoctions designed to... attend to the far more wondrous task of uplifting the soul." Meeting de Fretais for an inspection, Danny immediately detests the plump, overbearing chef, his kitchen filthy, although Skinner's superior refuses to allow a condemnation of the popular chef's restaurant.

Danny is introduced to his nemesis, Brian Kibby, on the job and literally has no clue why he develops such a raging antipathy toward the new employee, as the two could not be more dissimilar. Eerily disassociated from himself, caught up in drinking bouts and flirtations with the dark side of his nature, Skinner muses, "It was like it had happened to someone else", his world taking yet another erratic turn, Kibby hovering around the edges of his consciousness. Skinner's life is spinning out of control, his drinking excessive of late, his relationship with dancer-girlfriend Kay threatened by his recent behavior and his unwillingness to decrease his alcohol intake.

Newly engaged to Kay, Skinner is outraged when Kibby appears on the scene, the first to witness his joy. In a burst of temper, Skinner destroys what he most desires, his fianc finally fed up with his drunken debauchery. Further complicating his troubles, Danny is adamant that his mother reveal his father's name, but all she will admit is that he was once a chef at the Archangel. The more his daily life deteriorates, the more determined Danny is to locate his father, now on a short list of three; but with his growing obsession on his father's identity and spiraling discontent, Danny loses control of the simple acts that once structured his world, on a collision course with his own worst self, Kibby a constant irritant and blight on his daily horizon.

Welsh introduces an existential twist to a brilliant tale of youthful angst in modern-day Edinburgh and the frustration of a life gone horribly awry, Skinner and Kibby intricately bound to one another in a tragic-comic dance that baffles both. Skinner's escalating self-destruction is unleashed, Brian caught up in his own nightmare, a monstrous juxtaposition of roles that is mind-numbing. As Brian suffers from an undiagnosed illness, Skinner schemes with Machiavellian glee, unable to resist adding to the torment of Kibby's pitiful existence. Peopled with eccentric characters, mothers, friends, and the odd personalities that fill the barstools at night, this is a fascinating tale of self-indulgence run amok, love gone wrong and a world capable of much mischief, an innovative descent to the borders of one man's personal hell and another's unexpected salvation, all leading to a shocking retribution. Luan Gaines/ 2006.
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A well wrtten novel with lots of good food stuff too!
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The premise of this book was very intriguing to me.  To be able to taste the emotions of the person who cooked the food is such an interesting idea.  Aimee Bender takes a seemingly normal family and deconstructs it, not only through Rose's unique talent, but through an examination of how we communicate and interact with the people in our lives.  Rose's talent is a burden to her, at first, and one that she can't really explain to her loved ones.  She gets by through eating packaged food and confiding in only a few people.  By the end of the book, Rose finds a way to make peace with her gift and discovers that she isn't the only one in her family with unique talents.

I love the way that Aimee Bender writes.  Her style of prose is very soft and lyrical and the way she writes about food would make anyone hungry.  This book inhabits the genre of magical realism. It is a world that you know, but with a twist.
1110348
The Palm Wine Drinkard is written in short powerful bursts of peculiar narrative, unlike anything I had ever read before.

The narrator names himself "The Father of Gods who can do anything in this world" and goes on a wild adventure into the bush, using trickery and sorcery to overcome a series of supernatural foes and challenge even death itself.

The book is like an incredibly rich dish, I had to take the time to savor and digest each section or risk being overwhelmed. I would recommend it to anyone with a soft spot for tall tales or an interest in Yoruba folk tales.
4740538
Just like an exquisite meal that you take your time to savor, the same holds true for Destinys Captive by Beverly Jenkins. You take your time to enjoy every morsel. The handsome baby boy of the Yates clan, Noah, invaded my dreams when I had to reluctantly set the book aside with pages unread to go to sleep. I wasn't jealous of the Cuban pirate, Pilar Banderas, who stole his ship, as it became obvious that her challenge to him was intoxicating and dumbfounding. This book was like a lover that I missed and hastened home to daily. I couldn't get enough.

I trusted Beverly Jenkins as an authentic historical fiction writer. I knew she had done her research, so I was even more enthralled by the education I received. Yes, I thought that most decent women in the 19th Century were prudish, unless they were harlots or worked in brothels. Noahs sisters-in-law, Billie and Mariah, well at least Mariah, quickly dispelled that stereotype. They were adored by their husbands and cherished by the matriarch of the Yates dynasty, Alanza Yates. Love was flowing everywhere. Even Alanza was courted by a wealthy family friend. Only Noah appeared to be choosing a life at sea instead of settling down with a wife and kids like his brothers.

Noah was shanghaied when he was celebrating his eighteenth birthday and suffered indignities so repulsive, when he was freed two years later, he could not free himself of the nightmares. His family recognized that the youthful exuberance had subsided and the light of his smile had virtually disappeared. Ten years later his pride was bruised when he was kidnapped by a band of thieves led by a woman in disguise, and his beloved ship, the Alanza, was stolen from him. His anger nearly matched his nightmares as he promised the woman that he would find her one day, and deal with her the way the Spanish authorities dealt with the rebels who provided guns to the opposition in Cuba.

Pilar was used to being a fighter, a leader, a soldier and a pirate. She knew the feeling of comradery, the love of family and trusted friends. She did not know and had no interest in knowing how a woman felt when aroused by a man. Noahs threat to hunt her down made her uncomfortable. She couldn't name the sensation since it was foreign to her. When Noah does indeed track her down, the tug-of-war is one of the most beautifully written stories Ive read in a while. Pilar took Noahs ship and hes determined to take something as valuable to her for himself; her.