Member Reviews

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. A Poisonous Palate is the fourteenth book in the Key West Food Critic Mystery series. This time, Hayley investigates a decades old disappearance. Someone is killed, and another person goes missing. Hayley has plenty to investigate, much to the reader's delight. Hayley and Gloria are great characters, a major high point of this series. The storyline is strong and the mystery kept me interested throughout the book. A Poisonous Palate is n enjoyable book, perfect to help you put your worries behind.

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A plot that is a feast for the brain! Cold case, current case and everyone involved is lying about something driving our inquisitive food critic to keep stirring the pot to get to the truth! This plot will have you drooling, I mean seriously the food sounds delicious and after all, Haley is a food critic to food has to be an integral part of the story. However, the food isn't the only good thing. The cold case, the current mysterious case and all the lies surrounding both have Haley digging to find the facts of the past which she thinks may also solve the present! This series is always entertaining, but this book takes the mystery to a new level of whodunit to really whet your appetite and have you turning page after page late into the night to find out what really happened. I do think that this book is my new favorite of the series. The author creates compelling characters and even more engaging storylines for the characters that wrap through the mystery to make the entire story all that much more gripping and unputdownable! I can't wait for my next visit to Key West via Haley Snow and her collection of family and friends! Someday I'll make it to Key West in my real life, but for now it is a lot of fun to visit via Haley and pals!

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This is the fourteenth book in the Key West Food Critic mystery series. Once again Lucy Burdette paints a vivid picture of Key West. Key West is definitely on my bucket list, but if I never get to go, I can see the place in my head thanks to these books.

Hayley is asked by a woman to help her investigate the disappearance of a friend of hers 40 years ago. I love mysteries with a cold case angle. The way the author introduces the idea of toxic relationships is very intriguing. As always part of the charm of this series are Hayley’s friends, especially her tarot-reading friend, Lorenzo, and Miss Gloria, who continues to show how life should be led in your eighties.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for my free Advanced Reader’s Copy. I gave this mystery 5 stars. The author kept me guessing until the end who the killer was. While it is the 14th in the series, I do think it is one you could just jump in and read as a stand alone.

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A Poisonous Palate is book #14 in the A Key West Food Critic Mystery series by Lucy Burdette.

This was an interesting twist. Hayley is contacted by a woman , Catherine, whose friend disappeared 40 years earlier in Key West. When a person they speak to is murdered and Catherine disappears, it seems too much of a coincidence for the cases not to be related. I was kept guessing until the end. I always end up hungry when reading this series. I appreciate the recipes at the end.

Thank you to the author, Crooked Lane Books, and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

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Even if it's not my favorite it's a good and solid cozy mystery. Lucy Burdette delivers another solid story that kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

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Book 14 in the Key West Food Critic Mystery series. I have read books 12 and 13 so I was already familiar with the characters. One day I would love to go back to books 1- 11. If only there was more time!!!

In a Poisonous Palate Hayley Snow, food critic and amateur sleuth, is sought out by Catherine Davitt to help solve a decades old disappearance. Hayley is intrigued but her husband, Nathan, is wary and he may well be right. Is Catherine really sharing the truth and is the reality going to put Hayley into danger?

I really enjoyed the character of Gloria who is eighty years plus and is still living life to the fullest. I loved the descriptions of everyday life on the houseboats. Best of all were the culinary quotes at the beginning of each chapter, some of which were very funny and well worth reading aloud to anyone prepared to listen.

An excellent read.

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My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
My family went to Key West in the winters during my childhood. I bought earlier books in this series for my mother and I to read. I read the entire series at once to catch up for this latest book. It has been nice to reminisce about the island’s restaurants, bars, piers, festivals, quirks, history, and architecture. The mystery part of the stories has been good and not repetitive which must be difficult this far into a series. The relationship between the main character and her husband has always felt lacking and I don’t fee the author invested enough time in writing this part of the series to make it believable. They are hardly ever together on page and never seemed to have a romantic connection to the point where I was surprised when he proposed, shocked when she accepted, and genuinely didn’t think they would follow through with the wedding. Also she seems to lose track of her “best friend” Connie who had a baby and I swear several books go by before the friend or baby is mentioned again. Im not even sure they share the name of the best friends baby until a few books after she was born. The most believable relationship in the book is with the octogenarian roommate/neighbor, Gloria. And earlier books in the series had a lot of fat-shaming language in them which the author seems to have toned down in recent books.

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3.5 stars, rounded down
A Poisonous Palate takes us into the life of Hayley Snow, food critic and writer. She is married to Nathan a police detective. Her best friend is Miss Gloria, a lady of experienced years and tons of gumption. They live on houseboats in the Key West.
All it takes for Hayley to get involved in a decades old mystery is raising her curiosity. Catherine Davitt manages to do that. Catherine and Veronica come to the Keys in the 70s. Veronica goes missing and is never found. There are italicized sections in which Catherine tells part of the history as the story progresses.
This mystery had some dark overtones. There are drugs and sex and Hemingway. I know the last bit may not make sense but you’ll have to read it to find where Hemingway comes into it.
The story is well told. The life happenings of Hayley and friends are woven in well, although the wedding of Danielle feels a bit of an afterthought.
There just isn’t much light to the end of this story. I enjoy spending time with Hayley, Miss Gloria and the other people Hayley is close to, so I like the book without feeling like it is one of the better ones in the series.
Thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the chance to read A Poisonous Palate.

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A Poisonous Palate by Lucy Burdette was one that I flew through and could not wait to find out how it was going to end. The story keeps a steady pace with not a boring page one. If you enjoy a cozy mystery or just a great read in general then I night recommend picking this book up.

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Haley Snow, a food critic, frequently finds herself entangled in murder cases, much to the frustration of the local authorities. However, this time is different, when an author contacts Hayley for help with a missing person case, a person that went missing in 1978.

I’ve read every book in this series and love the Key West setting. The characters are always interesting, and I especially enjoyed this book for its unique twist involving the search for someone who has been missing for a long time.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

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4.5⭐ rounding up
Fourteen books in, and this is definitely one of my favorites in the series. Haley Snow, food critic for the Key Zest, personifies an insatiable curiosity that served her well in helping solve past murders. But is this cold case a murder or missing person? Along the way, the idea of toxic relationships as illustrated by the life of Ernest Hemingway, a one-time Key West resident, becomes an integral key to understanding what happened back in 1978 to the vivacious Veronica when she went missing from the hippie encampment. Twisty plot that kept me guessing.

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A great addition to an incredible series! Wonderful characters in an incredible setting. This book will keep you guessing until the end.

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This story takes off like a starter's gun! Bang and they're off! A Poisonous Palate is a fast moving mystery with an abundance of suspects from the past and the present. Plus delicious food and recipes.

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This was a more complicated case at least it seemed that way but once again Hayley and Miss Gloria made a really good sleuthing team. And Miss G did something so awesome it ended up saving Hayley’s life from a killer in a wild ‘n crazy showdown. I was definitely surprised at who the killer was.

Everything was wrapped up and explained then of course what does a foodie do when she’s finished with an amateur sleuthing case? She celebrates with food and some awesome friends and family too.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by Crooked Lane via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

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Hayley finds herself involved in a cold case. She is contacted by an author to help figure out what happened to A friend who disappeared many years earlier. When the two of them discover a dead man and then the author disappears, Hayley is very curious. With help from Miss Gloria, A retired cop and the sheriff's department, Hayley works to find answers. This book keeps you reading and is a great addition to this long running series. I love how Hayley continues to evolve and her relationships grow. The mystery is a good one and the recipes divine!

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Catherine has returned to the Keys to find an old friend who went missing years before. She’s also there to write about Hemingway and his many wives. Hayley Snow, food critic and sometime detective, has been asked to help Catherine in her search. The duo goes out to Big Pine Key to see what they can find. A commune gone missing, too much alcohol and drugs cloud memories, and a dead motel owner. And next Catherine goes missing. Who is responsible for this madness? Scary but great mystery.

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Thank you Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC of this book. This was an honest review. #campnetgalley

This series is one of my favorites, but this one is not so much. My favorite type of cozy mystery is one that is centered around food, but this one wasn't for me. Hayley was so easily sucked into another mystery by someone she initially believed was guilty that I didn't care. I did like that the case was a cold case of a missing person from the 70's but I did not care enough about the characters involved or even the missing person. With her spunk and how she tagged along with Hayley to question suspects, Hayley's elderly friend Miss Gloria was a shining light to this story for me.

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Key West without Hemingway would be like the Macy's parade without Santa Claus. Burdette knows this, and so Hemingway figures in this culinary series in book 14. Burdette has said her goal is to improve with each new novel. She has. Here she skillfully blends a cold case with Hemingway history, weaving in a contemporary cast of characters. Usually characters in cozies are quirky but likeable. Here's the twist: Hayley's challenge is to help an individual who is not likeable. Catherine Davitt tells Hayley she plans a book on the toxicity of the Hemingway wives. She confesses that she also needs to know what happened to her traveling companion who went missing in the 1970's. On a visit to Big Pine Key, Hayley, Ms Gloria and Catherine enter a moldy, ramshackle motel to find a corpse. The cold case heats up; the body is that of one of the suspects from before. Then Catherine vanishes.

Will Hayley find the killer before the killer finds Hayley? As always Burdette has created an engaging plot with multiple layers, including luscious descriptions of Key West meals. A must read for all lovers of foodie cozies!

Full disclosure: I received this ARC from netgalley and Penguin Random House in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you for this opportunity.

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All Hayley wanted to do was help Catherine look for information about her friend Veronica, who went missing in the 1970s but noooooo-now Catherine's missing too and there's been a murder! Hayley, our intrepid food critic, is good at interviewing and investigating, which makes her husband Nathan, a police lieutenant, nuts sometimes. This is sorta-classic cozy territory which pulls secrets from the past into the present and forces Hayley to look down dark(ish) paths. I like this series as much for the characters (and the recipes) as for the mysteries and this is no exception. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's the latest in a long running series that fans will welcome but new readers can enjoy as well.

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Terrific addition to a good series. Time spent in Key West is always interesting and enjoyable. Food, friends, murder and this time a cold case. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

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