Irish Stewed

Laurel Inwood has just washed out as a personal chef to a Hollywood movie star. With no job, she lands in Hubbard, Ohio, to help her aunt Sophie run a restaurant.

The place is not what Sophie promised. Sophie's Terminal at the Tracks is no cozy bistro but a run-down greasy spoon inside an old railroad station. Laurel hopes to rescue it by serving a rotating series of ethnic dishes as daily specials.

Then a customer turns up dead in a booth. Jack Lancer, an investigative reporter on local TV news who goes by the Lance of Justice, is slumped over a table with a receipt spike in his back. Laurel decides to find the killer herself, and she gets help from the strikingly good-looking owner of the Irish store next door, who may or may not be a suspect.

This is a cozy mystery with a culinary setting, a light and humorous tone, and an amateur sleuth who cooks as she investigates. Recipes are included. As Laurel presses closer to the truth, she risks drawing the killer's attention to herself.