Book Review: Killer Comfort Food by Stacey Roberts

 

This book is listed under both mystery and humor, which makes a lot of sense. There is a lot of both in this novel. The author is skilled at crafting both an entertaining story as well as creating interesting and complex characters. I truly enjoyed Amelia and her son, Gene Four, and the recipes that were included before each chapter were a fun and creative touch.

So many of the adults in young Amelia's life left her at a young age. When her uncle George dies, he surprises both of his sons as well as Amelia when he leaves her his farm and a huge amount of land. For a while, Amelia makes her own life incredibly hard with alcoholism. She finally learns how to keep that devil at bay, then all the property she owns begins to cause her a whole heap of trouble. She's a tough woman raising a genius son with an ex-husband who is less than helpful, and ex-in-laws who are even more than less than helpful. She's well versed in the use of her shotgun—and actually finds reason to use it several times throughout the book—and Roberts really had me, hook, line and …

Well, not sinker. There's a bit at the end where he explains how the murders—and there are plenty—were actually carried out, and while it was well written, I struggled with placement. Or something. I'm not even quite sure what the problem was, but it didn't flow for me. Perhaps one issue was that the perspective changed a couple of times without any warning and I had to run to keep up. It wasn't a smooth ride.

Then came the epilogue. I guess the only thing I can think to say about the epilogue is that maybe it went a step too far. I read that this book was the first of a series. I can see where Mr. Roberts might go with a second book, but I'm afraid if it isn't back to the past when Gene is a younger child, I have a hard time seeing how he will capture what he built in the majority of this first novel.

I really did love so much of this book, but I think I can only give it three and a half stars. I really hate that because there was so much to celebrate in the first three quarters of this tale.