December 9, 2013
Gourmets who enjoy a little mayhem with their munchies will welcome Burdette's fourth Key West mystery featuring food critic Hayley Snow (after 2013's Topped Chef). Soon after the arrival of Hayley's dysfunctional family in Key West, Fla., for the wedding of Hayley's best friend, her 15-year-old stepbrother, Rory, the epitome of sullen adolescence, disappears. A search locates Rory in a coma aboard an abandoned sailboat the next day, but the subsequent discovery of the drowned body of the girl Rory ran off with makes the boy a murder suspect. Burdette (the pen name of Roberta Isleib) does a good job integrating information about runaway teens into the plot, along with appealing food details. Mystery purists may disapprove of a solution that involves someone not identified until late in the storyâas well as an otherwise intelligent lead who flouts a police order to stop following the chief suspect and throws herself into the fray. Agent: Paige Wheeler, Folio Literary Management.