Great start to a new series. I enjoyed the writing style and the mystery was fast paced and well written!

Final Fondue is the third installment in the Five Ingredient Mystery series by Maya Corrigan. Although there is much suspense in this novel, it is a culinary cozy, with no overt violence, sex, or language. Val Deniston, who has moved back to the small town of Bayport near Chesapeake Bay, after quitting a lucrative job in New York, finds herself involved in the city’s Tri-centennial celebrations; the restaurant she runs has a booth, and she has been on the planning committee. She has talked her Grandfather into renting three of the rooms to Tri-centennial guests; all friends who have come to help bride-to-be Jennifer plan her wedding. Some of the guests aren’t particularly pleasant, and the only one who seems nice, Fawn, is found by Val in her Granddad’s backyard murdered.

Val has served as an amateur detective before, and has been helpful to the police in solving a few previous murders. In between helping her Granddad perfect his chocolate fondue for the upcoming cook-off, preparing for her food booth, and spending time with her boyfriend, Gunnar, she learns her ex-fiancé has come to town (at the request of her meddling mother), as well as a former co-worker and chef who blames her for ruining his life; he is to judge the cook-off. Not sure that the actual target was Fawn, and suspecting her co-worker may have been trying to murder her, or that Jennifer was the intended victim, Val must uncover enough clues to find the murderer. Issues from the past surface, and it seems that the more Val learns, the more danger there is to her life.

One of the fun things about this book is that Val and her Granddad are cooks, and food is mentioned throughout. As a bonus there are a few good recipes at the end of the book. The book is light, fun, and fast-moving; it’s also suitable for all ages of mystery lovers. Corrigan does a good job making her characters believable and seem like people most readers can relate to.

All told, this is a fun series and Final Fondue is a good book to read on an airplane trip or while sitting at the beach. Most readers will want to start with the first two books in the series, but this one has enough information that it isn’t absolutely necessary.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.