In the debut of a delightful cozy mystery series, Sarah Fox introduces a charming new heroine who finds herself in a sticky situation: stacking pancakes, pouring coffee, and investigating murder.

When Marley McKinney’s aging cousin, Jimmy, is hospitalized with pneumonia, she agrees to help run his pancake house while he recovers. With its rustic interior and syrupy scent, the Flip Side Pancake House is just as she pictured it—and the surly chef is a wizard with crêpes. Marley expects to spend a leisurely week or two in Wildwood Cove, the quaint, coastal community where she used to spend her summers, but then Cousin Jimmy is found murdered, sprawled on the rocks beneath a nearby cliff.

After she stumbles across evidence of stolen goods in Jimmy’s workshop, Marley is determined to find out what’s really going on in the not-so-quiet town of Wildwood Cove. With help from her childhood crush and her adopted cat, Flapjack, Marley sinks her teeth into the investigation. But if she’s not careful, she’s going to get burned by a killer who’s only interested in serving up trouble.

I’m not sure I will ever understand how or why food and cozy mysteries go hand in hand, but this book proves that it just does. Especially since it features some yummy looking recipes.

Food aside, I found this to be a great start for a new cozy mystery series. Marley seems like a likeable character and it is always interesting to get the main character’s point of view if they are an outsider. Though she used to spend the summers visiting her aunt and uncle, she’s not really in on the small town dynamics of Wildwood Cove. However, when her beloved uncle is found dead, Marley finds herself caught up in a whirlwind of emotions. On one hand she’s determined to uncover who killed her uncle, but on another hand, she’s struggling to decide what will be her future and the future of her uncle’s Flip Side Pancake House.

The plot moves along relatively smoothly and I feel the author did a great job at not giving away who was responsible. The truth is, this little seaside town has quite a few quirky and shady townspeople. So it’s not hard to believe several people might be responsible… Especially when several are caught in compromising conditions. I look forward to discovering more of the town’s drama, secrets and scandals. This is definitely a great start for this brand new series!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

All opinions of the book are my own.

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