Riley Adams – Delicious and Suspicous

The first book in the Memphis Barbeque Mystery series, published July 6, 2010.
Genre: cozy mystery with recipes
Cover: pretty and welcoming



Welcome to Aunt Pat's barbecue restaurant – family run and located in the heart of Memphis, Tennessee. Named in honor of Lulu Taylor's great aunt, the restaurant is known for its ribs and spicy cornbread, but now the Taylor family will be known for murder – unless Lulu can clear their name …
Rebecca Adrian came to Memphis to suss out the best local BBQ for a prominent Cooking Channel Show. Trouble is, Rebecca doesn’t live long enough to mention a bad review. A mystery ingredient has killed her - and now all fingers are pointing to Aunt Pat's restaurant. Horrified that her family is being accused of murder, Lulu fires up her investigative skills to solve the crime before someone else gets skewered…


Aunt Pat’s is all abuzz, when the scout for a major food network arrives to make a show about the best bbq in town. And of course that is Aunt Pat’s! It certainly is not their main competitor with the tacky pink pig dancing in the street. But Rebecca Adrian is a very nasty woman, who does nothing better than to crush people’s hopes and dreams, and looks down at everyone she meets. And so, when Lulu finds her murdered in her hotel room, there are certainly plenty of suspects. Even amongst her own family members and close friends …
With business dropping as people are afraid of food poisoning, she has to take matters in her own hands and find out who has done it and why. Especially when a second murder takes place and Lulu herself is attacked at the scene …


This is my first cozy set in Memphis and it was fun. Besides grandma Lulu who owns and runs the restaurant with her son Ben and his wife Sara, there are some great secondary characters. Ben and Sara have two little daughters, one who wants to be in pageants and the other one who wants to be a detective. Then there is the other son, Seb, who has a very shady past, and their nephew Derek, who has kind of lost his way and was sent to Sara by his mother.

It was fun to read about The Graces, a club of elderly ladies who are enormous Elvis fans, and give tours at Graceland. Or the elderly librarian who has taken decades to write a romance novel, only to see it butchered by Rebecca Adrian. And now she is determined to write a detective instead, she will use this case for inspiration for her new book … until she gets too close to the killer …

The book is filled with colourful characters; I really enjoyed the Southern atmosphere. I have to admit, I did not find out the real murderer or the reason why, before it was revealed to Lulu herself. Which means it was a good book, and I will certainly read the rest of the series.

If you like barbeque, you could also buy this book just for the recipes in the back.

7 stars.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian