From the back: "When Eugenia Potter receives an urgent phone call from the manager of her ranch near Tucson, she's only too happy to drop everything and fly home. Something inside her is calling her back to the desert. Why else would she be preparing spicy Mexican meatball soup at her cottage in Maine when the menu clearly calls for clam chowder?

"But once she arrives home, Mrs. Potter discovers that her ranch manager and his granddaughter are missing from her ranch, Las Palomas, and feared dead. When a guest at a dinner gathering thrown by Mr.s Potter is found poisoned--apparently from eating her famous 27-ingredient chili--she knows she must act quickly before the murderer strikes again. And it doesn't hurt to have the help of a long-lost beau to spice up the danger with romance..."

I have read one of the earlier Potter mysteries (before the original author died), and the author who took over her notes and such (and wrote this one from those notes) did a nice job in keeping continuity and character. This book seemed less dense than the other one, but still more to it than most cozy mysteries.

I did not like the first couple chapters, where she refers over and over and over again to previous books (and I think there were only three!), and does the "if she'd only known" later she's think "how could she have known", etc, etc. You don't need to have read any earlier books to read this one, but the first chapter will be full of references that you don't get and are irrelevant to the rest of the book. While I don't mind a casual comment about a previous book in a mystery series, these were rather heavy handed.

The plot was interesting, and the solution caught me by surprise. Definately a good mystery to read. Just skim the first couple chapters, until she gets out to her ranch!

This is heading out as part of bookrelay's bookmates. I noticed lots of cooking mysteries on her wish list, so I hope she enjoys this one!

Received today -- thank you!!

Using notes and recipes of the late Virginia Rich ( The Cooking School Murders), Pickard, author of the Jenny Caine mysteries, serves up a fourth satisfying, chatty tale about master cook and amateur sleuth Eugenia Potter.

In her home in New England, the widowed Mrs. Potter receives a call from Ricardo Ortega, manager of her Arizona ranch, who hints at trouble. Alarmed, she flies out to find that Ricardo and his granddaughter have disappeared. As neighboring ranchers and friends conduct a search, Mrs. Potter tries to determine the cause of Ricardo's unease. To feed the volunteers, she cooks up a huge pot of her 27-ingredient chili. Ricardo's body is discovered badly battered after an apparent fall, but Linda remains missing. The savory supper somewhat comforts the searchers, who leave with containers of leftovers. The next morning Mrs. Potter's elderly hired hand and two illegal immigrant boys are found dead, poisoned by the chili. Aiding the forthright sleuth in her ultimately successful pursuit of the killer and the missing girl is a rediscovered former lover. Suspense with dollops of romance and gossip makes this cozy mystery a fun, light read.

RELEASE NOTES:

Releasing to charity.