So today is the big day Riley Adams, who we all know and love as Elizabeth Spann Craig; she releasing her second Memphis Bar B Que Series book TODAY. I finished it yesterday on my way to work, and it was a delight all the way through... but let me give you some detail...
Lulu is the MC and 90% of the book is from her PoV. She is family matriarch and second generation owner of Aunt Pat's Barbeque restaurant on Beale Street in Memphis. She is kind and smart... worries about her family...
Her family includes her son, Ben, cook for Aunt Pat's, his wife Sara, an artist who waits tables to help make ends meet, their twins Ella Beth and Coco, and Sara's nephew, Derrick.
Aunt Pat's also had a passel of regulars: The Graces, five women of a certain age who are docents of Graceland, the Backporch Blues Band, three octogenarian musicians, and a few more, met this book.
The Plot
Evelyn, one of the Graces, has a new beau, or rather an old beau... she is seeing an ex-husband who seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way. When it is learned that Adam is not only smarmy, greedy, and philandering, but the anonymous pen behind some scathing restaurant critiques, there are some people out for blood... literally...
But who literally literally got blood and who just figuratively got blood? There is a long list of suspects... people who lost jobs, people who lost business, people who were being blackmailed, people cheated upon... oh, no... there is no shortage of who might have wanted Adam dead... But who killed him? Lulu takes on the case to help her friend Evelyn, who looks a little guilty at first... but it seems nearly everyone on the list is someone she knows...
Assessment
The pace is good. The characters are GREAT. And... I read the first Memphis and didn't see any setting deficits, but honestly, I could TELL Elizabeth made a visit to Memphis between the first and second book. Memphis here is more tactile... I could FEEL it. I really enjoyed the first one—I thought it was a fun, well-done read. But I think on every front, this is a stronger book. (which means instead of really good, this one was great).
Personal note: Hubby started his first week of full time work since I've known him this week. My biggest complaint is that I will have dinner duty 4 nights a week in the foreseeable future, and I despise cooking. I hope this doesn't interfere with blogging, but it might now and then. I know it WILL interfere with writing a little, but once I get a grant in at work (the 14th) I begin a schedule with a day off each week, so I will make up for it.