The next in the series of most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series is Lucy Burdette‘s Key West Food Critic Mystery Series.

I haven’t had as much time to read this month as I would have liked – to be honest I’m really not sure where the time has gone. That said, I’m glad that I’ve finally had the time to reread one of the most recommended Cozy series by site visitors, which begins with An Appetite for Murder.

This series stars Hayley Snow, who has recently uprooted her life to move to Key West, Florida, to live with a man she knew only a bit. When she found him in bed with another woman, she also found herself virtually homeless as well, living off of the kindness of friends in town.

In an attempt to bring her life back under control, she applies for the job as a food critic for a new local newspaper. Unfortunately, she already has an unpleasant history with one of the site’s owner, who is the woman her boyfriend was sleeping with. Naturally, the would-be boss dies suspiciously, and Hayley quickly becomes a prime suspect. Hayley needs to not only prove her innocence, but keep up her job application – just because she’s being considered for murder doesn’t mean life doesn’t go on, after all.

In this instance, the setting is of particular interest to me – as I was actually born in Key West. I haven’t spent much time there —> my parents didn’t live there, and I was only born there because it was the closest American hospital to where my father was stationed at the time. So it’s interesting to hear different perspectives and descriptions of Key West, as I haven’t had as much time to form an impression of the city as I would like.

It doesn’t hurt that another key component of the series is another personal favorite – food. It’s easy to connect with readers over the topic of food, simply because it is one of the few absolute common points that all humans have in common – we all have to eat, and we want to enjoy what we eat whenever possible. The murder mystery’s backdrop of food, particularly Hayley’s visits to local restaurants to help ensure her resume for the food critic position rises to the top. There are plenty of mouth-watering descriptions of various delicious dishes that Hayley patronizes throughout the mystery – particularly seafood, since Key West is a big fishing town after all!

If you’re interested in reading more of these brief revisits of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.