Just finished this new cozy mystery, first in the series of Five Ingredient Mysteries.  I enjoyed reading this one, more than I expected.  The cover drew me in…I know, I’m shallow, but the idea of  5-ingredient recipes is not, on its own, a big draw for me.  The protagonist, Val,  has crashed and burned from her big city life as a cookbook publicist and has arrived at her grandfather’s home, ostensibly to get the house packed up, sold, and him moved, but really to work on her own cookbook and find her footing again.

Her day job is in  a fitness club cafe and on the side she is working on her own recipes.  Her grandfather is somewhat of a typical grouchy old man with a heart of gold.  He seems to have her best interests at heart, although he is not against finding something in it for himself.  There is a lot going on between real estate deals, tennis fanatics, affairs, disguises, gambling rings, fraudulent business practices, and murder.  There is also a romantic subplot with two love interests to choose between.  Aside from the main murder mystery and the romantic subplot, there is also a mystery from Val’s past which  she is trying to work through but can’t quite remember due to the side effects of a concussion.

Lots going on and lots to think about making for a fast, fun cozy read.

And as an aside the recipes were not what I thought.  When I think of the 5 ingredient recipes, I think bland, tasteless food or worse the classic …”start with a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup” recipes and these didn’t seem like that.  I am tempted to try out the crab cake recipe because it really sounds good.