Mrs Merlino's pie is to die for - at least that's what her neighbor says.
A street party on a hot summer evening takes a deadly turn when one of the revellers dies, apparently from food poisoning. But there’s more to the death than first meets the eye, and in this R&P Labs Mystery short story, the staff members find themselves drawn into a case of love, loathing and lemon meringue pie.
'Halfbaked' introduces Zukie Merlino, who goes on to be featured in the 10-book Zukie Merlino Mysteries series.
Excerpt
Mitch had been quiet while this discussion was going on. He appeared to be thinking deeply, which always worried his colleagues. Now he looked up.
“If Colleen is accusing Zukie of poisoning him, then the toxic stuff had to be in something she cooked, didn’t it? Otherwise there wouldn’t be any point in trying to pin it on her.”
“But only if the food she cooked was tested and a toxin was found in it,” Ellis said. “And we’re all agreed it can’t be tested accurately, for any number of reasons.”
“I know,” Mitch said. “Bummer, isn’t it? You know, I like Zukie. She’s sharp as a tack, a real character, and I know she wouldn’t murder anybody. Scream at them, yeah. Even belt them one if she was mad enough. But murder? Nah.”
“The fact she gave you a pie isn’t going to convince a jury,” Ellis said.
“It’s not going to go to a jury.”
Professional Reviews
Enjoyable light mystery
Halfbaked's an enjoyable light mystery. Several folks get food poisoning after a neighborhood potluck street party and one dies, perhaps murdered. Using deception, several lab techs try to find out what happened. There's wit, but not a lot of tension in the plot. The book plays fair with the reader: no clues are withheld, but I did not guess its ending . I hesitated between 3 and 4 for my rating, with three winning out because there's some repetition and filler in the telling of the tale, particularly near the beginning, which, if eliminated, would make for a better tighter read.
Enjoyable novella
Enjoyable novella length murder mystery. Quite put me off street parties and neighbourhood get togethers. I wish I had read this before I moved away from a disagreeable neighbour.
Be careful of those neighborhood potlucks!
"Halfbaked" from Cynthia Hurst is the perfect book for an evening at home to avoid that neighborhood potluck. In this story, several people suffer the unfortunate results of poorly prepared food--or is something more sinister at play?
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