Review: Allergic to Death by Peg Cochran

Description (from cover):

“Preparing calorie-conscious meals for the dieters of Woodstone, Connecticut, Gigi Fitzgerald knows a cheater when she sees one. And when murder is on the menu, she’s ready to get the skinny of whodunit…

Business is looking up for Gigi’s Gourmet De-Lite, thanks to her newest client, restaurant reviewer Martha Bernhardt. Martha has the clout to put Gigi’s personal meal plans on everyone’s lips. But instead of dropping a few pounds, Martha drops dead from a severe peanut allergy…right after eating one of Gigi’s signature dishes.

When the distractingly debonair Detective Mertz identifies traces of peanut oil in Martha’s last meal, Gigi suddenly finds her diet catering business on the chopping block. Now she’ll have to track down who tampered with her recipe–before her own goose is cooked.”

My thoughts:

          This seems to be the year of new mystery series. This book is the first in the all new Gourmet De-Lite series and it fits the “cozy mystery” mold. Gigi Fitzgerald, the owner of Gigi’s Gourmet De-Lite, resides in a small suburban town in Connecticut, where she prepares meals for diet conscious clients. Martha Bernhardt is the local restaurant reviewer that has the knack for making a restaurant thrive or go out of business her pen. Gigi hopes that she can get a good review that can elevate her business, but before Martha can review Gigi’s meals, she dies suddenly in a car accident. It seems like a pretty open and shut accident case, until the medical examiner discovers that Martha died of an allergic reaction to peanuts and that Gigi’s meal was the last thing Martha ate. Gigi scrambles, along with some friends, to find out who tampered with her meal before she loses all her clients and her business.

         This book hit the ground running at the beginning with the murder/accident happening fairly quickly. I was really liking this book until it hit the middle. At that point, the plot went sluggish and all of a sudden very predictable. I could have sworn that I had the culprit figured out around then, but the ending had a little twist and I can’t say that I had the mystery completely solved, but pretty darn close. I don’t understand what happened with the storyline. It started out so good and then fizzled. I found myself thinking that this was a slump in the plot and that it would gain momentum, but it never really happened. I was disappointed, but I do have to say that the characters were very likable. That was about the only saving grace for this book but I am hoping that this is just a debut fluke and that the series will pick up with the next release. It seems like this year has been the year for debut disappointments for some reason. I’m hoping that 2013 brings better books.

Overall Rating:  3.5/5

Title: Allergic to Death
Author: Peg Cochran
Series: Gourmet De-Lite Mystery #1
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: August 7, 2012
Pages: 272
Genre: Cozy Mystery

Disclaimer: This book was selected from the library by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.