A Taste of the Nightlife by Sarah Zettel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars




If you are a fan of the Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse World and love good food based mystery like the older Diane Mott Davidson’s books and you like learning about the running of a successful restaurant.  Now add in a possible love triangle and I think we may have the perfect, or almost perfect new mystery series.   I loved this series opener and I am hoping that the next book “Let Them Eat Stake “will be just as good.

What you will find in this debut novel is, murder, a dead body on the premises, a hostile takeover attempt, blackmail, a possible love story and the disappearance of several key people and an arrest of an important character on the suspicion of murder.  There is excitement galore, the talk of yummy food (I wish some recipes could have been included in the book!) and so much more.

The characters, for an initial novel in a series are pretty well fleshed out and I feel that you will have no trouble seeing them in your mind. The author has a very good descriptive voice and uses it to her advantage.  The dialogue is perfectly believable for people in that age bracket and working conditions. and the narration is smooth with good transitions.  Even the secondary characters are given great personalities, and they are fleshed out to the point that you may be hoping, as I am, that they will have their own stories someday.

The only problem I had with this novel is that Brendon Maddox, who is a paranormal security specialist cannot find his own cousin who is a minor witch but a huge *itch!

I think you will find this a fun, somewhat funny, slightly complicated and sometimes mood-swinging read.  I loved it.




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