By Dennis Fischman

Are you going on vacation this summer? Why not do what I do, and read a murder mystery set in that location before heading out?

Back in 2017, my wife and I were planning to meet some old friends of hers in the wonderful island of Key West, Florida. To get the feel of the place, I did read some serious fiction – Hemingway not only wrote about Key West, he had a house there which is now run for the benefit of the descendants of his pet cats! – and some travel books. Nothing whetted my appetite for my vacation more, however, than Lucy Burdette’s Key West Food Critic Mysteries.

Hayley Snow is our heroine, and the cutesy name gives you a clue to the climate of the books. They’re apparently bright and sunny, like the play on words in her name, but with just enough rough weather to make the mysteries worth reading.

In An Appetite for Murder: Key West Food Critic Mystery #1, Hayley was a

The Key Lime Crime, by Lucy Burdette. Crooked Lane Books, 2020, 320 pages.

young woman when she followed her boyfriend to Key West, but they broke up nearly immediately when she found him in bed with another woman. To stay in town, she applied to be a food critic at a local magazine – which she then found out was owned by the other woman! And when the new boss is killed (by a poisoned key lime pie!), Hayley is the prime suspect. She has to turn detective to clear her name.

You get the picture. Classic cozy tropes, with silly humor and a fairly immature young woman who’s spunky enough not to get chased back to the mainland by a little thing like being a suspected criminal. The mystery in the first book is slight, and most of them remain that way throughout. But from the first book on, I was making notes about actual Key West restaurants to try and food to eat.

I also got wind of the sunset show by the harbor with the acrobatic cats. Yes, that is real!

The most recent book in Hayley Snow series that I’ve read is The Key Lime Crime. Set between Christmas and New Year, it features a pie-baking contest, the “Key Lime Key to the City,” that turns deadly when one of the contestants shows up dead among the palm trees. What’s worse, Hayley’s new mother-in-law is there when they discover the body. She already seems a little dubious about the woman her son, the cop, has married. What will she think when she sees this food reporter turn investigator? Can this marriage be saved?

I originally read this book in the dark days of early January 2021, when both the White House and the nation’s health were under attack. It was the perfect distraction back then. Now, if you are looking for a confection that’s dark on top and sweet all the way down, you might want to pick it up.

This summer, I am not going back to Key West, but I may go back to the Food Critic Mysteries. Two more books have been published since this one, and they’d make a fine palate cleanser after some Nordic noir.

Dennis Fischman is a member of the Somerville Public Library’s Mystery Book Club and an inveterate reader.