Review: MEXICAN CAFÉ COZY MYSTERY SET by Holly Plum (Book 1-4)

Murder con Carne (Book 1): Mari Ramirez works at her family’s Mexican restaurant in Texas. One day, she finds the body of the town’s only meat delivery man under one of her dining room tables that held a plate of carne asada. Could this have been poison? No, he was stabbed? But who would want to stab him? The leading suspect was obviously Mari’s hard-headed father, who was the only one near the vicinity when it happened. Could the rival Chinese restaurant across the street have anything to do with it?

Mari’s was determined to find the killer to not only clear her dad’s name and save the restaurant, but to hear  her dad say, “I’m proud of you.” Let’s face it, he had the mindset of the “old Mexican ways,” where the man is the master and the woman does what she’s told.

A quick, quirky mystery, although slightly predictable.

I love how it gets right to the mystery.

Killer Salsa (Book 2): Mari enters the family’s famous salsa in the Chile Festival and aims to win that prize money. Suddenly, the event organizer drops dead at the event after eating her salsa. Naturally, they suspect her salsa may have had poison.

This was better than the first mystery because it had more suspects and kept you guessing.

Smothered in Lies (Book 3): A man has been shot and dumped near the porta potties at a food truck lot, where Mari’s brothers sell at.  This then sparks possible speculation of the Legend of Red Arrow. What? Suddenly, archeology comes into play. Weird. I also thought it was lame how these murders center on the Ramirez family being the culprit and how it somehow boosts sales for the restaurant. And it happens every time, too.

Rice, Beans, and Revenge (Book 4): An old high school classmate, who is now a famous celebrity, is murdered from a plate of rice and beans at Mari’s restaurant. Could the culprit be someone from the old days looking to exact revenge? Again, this follows the same pattern from the previous books, but this one had more suspects and more allure to the mystery.

Overall: The first four books in the series were, overall, pretty good. Best ones were Book 2 + 4. Books tended to follow the same plot pattern and writing had some typos that could’ve been fixed.

My rating: 3 stars