Title: Lunch Time Murder
Author: Sydney Tate
Publisher: CAR
Quote: "People who might normally pass through a small, insignificant town like Little Brook now stopped specifically for their Food Truck Circle treats."
This cozy-mystery-meets-sweet-romantic-comedy is as overloaded with "everything" as the outrageous novelty recipes the Food Truck Circle vendors inspire one another to concoct. (If you're a creative cook, this book is for you--no recipes but lots of inspirations for over-the-top trendy food.) Ginger O'Connell isn't "gluten-free" but her most distinctive wholesome confections, from the arugula-kale salad to the whipped frosting on a sugar plate, just naturally are. The town of Little Brook markets itself to visitors with food, not history, so it doesn't have a really strong state identity, but it's probably in North Carolina. Its Butter Festival, expected to be a real revenue generator, offers a high prize...but nobody expected the prize would be enough to tempt anyone to murder, until a bleeding body turns up right against Ginger's permanently parked truck. (Ginger walks everywhere, burning off all the calories in her delicious food.; her truck is her store.) Since the truck never moves, Ginger's not a prime suspect; since the murdered man was a co-worker, she naturally wants to know who murdered him, but she doesn't try serious amateur sleuthing until a friend's visiting godson goads her into helping him search another vendor's truck and the mayor's mansion. Since they're both young and single, their explanation for being caught snooping, that they just wanted to be together, is easy for people to accept. Of course, after using this excuse a few times, they realize it's true.
But is Graham her friend or her enemy? When he and Ginger meet, their tempers flare as Graham proclaims that Food Truck Circle ought to have been a public park. How daaare anyone suggest shutting down the way local entrepreneurs are earning a living. How caaaan anyone want to park nasty trucks in a place where rosebushes and swing sets...
Does this one ever sound like home to me. Some of the store and restaurant owners in my town still fret that Friday Market vendors are taking business away from them. "A flea market attracts a different kind of clientele. Those people don't walk uphill and shop for new merchandise in boutiques, or buy meals in sit-down restaurants when they can just buy snacks and soda pop..."
"If your business is so small that it can be threatened by the Friday Market, you should just go home anyway! If the Jackson Street stores didn't price things seven times what they're worth..."
The solution for Graham and Ginger is, of course, to keep the food trucks beside the park. Duh. And anyone who doesn't have a deeply ingrained prejudice, as it might be a councilman who turned against Friday Market after trying to sell things there for a few weeks, can see how that would work for Gate City too. What's already a paved parking lot should stay paved and be rented out to vendors by the parking space. Right beside it is a lovely grassy field, and that is where the children's park some people dream of having should go. Children, as I well remember, love the Friday Market. They'd love it even more if there was a free, safe, supervised place where they could run and scream while their parents shopped. Bounce house? Instant shower? Merry-go-rounds? The more the merrier--and no need even to crowd the Friday Market. Just put a little walkway, Entrance to the Kid Zone, around the back of the drive-through bank, and there we are.
Lunch Time Murder is recommended to anyone who can stand the combination of whodunit, romance, and comedy, and to all members of small-town councils whether they like mixed-genre fiction or not.
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