Lynn Cahoon, the author whose series I am highlighting this month as part of my Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series posts, has become so popular since 2014 when her first book was released that she already has four series of mystery books. This one, the Farm to Fork Mystery Series is the second of her series that I have featured in these posts. You can find my write up of Tourist Trap Mystery Series here.
This month, I read the first book in the Farm to Fork series, Who Moved My Goat Cheese?. As the story begins, Angie Turner has recently relocated to the little town of River Vista, a bedroom community near Boise, Idaho, to live in her recently deceased grandmother’s (Nona’s) house and open a restaurant, “The County Seat”, with her best friend Felicia Williams.
This is the second restaurant that Angie and Felicia have co-owned. After meeting in culinary school and becoming best friends, they had opened their first place, el pescado, in the San Francisco area five years before. When the lease expired, the landlord wanted more than the restaurant could afford, so they closed it, and, as Who Moved My Goat Cheese? begins, the friends are planning the opening of their new venture.
Angie is to be the head chef. Felicia is more business-oriented and plans to run the business side of things along with the front of the house. (Somewhat refreshingly, neither Angie nor Felicia seem to have converted to restaurateurs from some other profession (often law) as is common in Cozies nowadays.)
While planning the opening and searching for suppliers in order to meet the farm-to-fork requirement for their new venture, Angie meets a number of farmers, one of whom is soon found murdered. As befitting a true Cozy Mystery sleuth, Angie just can’t seem to mind her own business, and soon she is doing her own investigation to find out who murdered her (very new) friend.
The book has a lot of very attractive features — Angie’s Nona, even though she passed away before the story begins, is still a strong force in Angie’s life. Many of the recipes that Angie works on in the book (and there are quite a few) are based on Nona’s excellent home cooking. (A bonus recipe for potato soup is included in a note from the author at the end of the book.) Angie has a new St Bernard puppy, Dom and inherits a baby goat, Precious.
The little town of River Vista seems like a nice place to live (except for the murders, of course). Angie meets a bunch of interesting people including one or more love interests.
All told, Who Moved the Goat Cheese? is a classic modern Cozy which does a great job of setting the table (pun intended) for this new Lynn Cahoon series. I can see why she has so many fans — she is a new writer to take note of, for sure.
If you’re interested in seeing more highlights of some of the most recommended or popular Cozy Mystery authors/series, visit the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.
