Up to No Gouda

Up to No Gouda

by Linda Reilly

After the death of her husband, Carly has moved back to her small Vermont hometown to pursue her life-long dream: opening a restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese. Despite the fact business is booming, her new landlord decides not to renew her lease. When her best employee becomes the prime suspect in a murder, Carly embarks to prove her friend's innocence, maybe saving her shop in the process.

The first chapter of this book is a huge backstory with a lot of information that will be repeated later in the book. However, once I got past that, I found this story fairly enjoyable. I liked the characters and I found myself trying to solve the mystery along with Carly. While I did figure out the whodunit before her, I didn't catch the motive until just before she did.

I did have a few issues with the book. There were times when the dialogue felt a little forced and not natural. There was also the scene where Carly shared a glass of port with her neighbor. In the morning, although she didn't use the words, she was more or less described as being hung over. While the reasoning is explained later, I found it unrealistic that she could be hung over from a single glass of wine. While I liked the later explanation, I think in that morning scene, the character should acknowledge how strange this is, maybe wonder about it every so often over the course of the day.

However, despite it's slow start, I enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading more in this series. Overall, I would rate this story three and a half quills and place it on my middle shelf.