4.5 out of 5 stars.

Grilled, Chilled, and Killed is the second book in the Big Lake Murders series. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. While it didn’t have that extra pizzazz that throws it up to a 5-star read for me, it was still delightful.

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Synopsis

It seems as if Emily is destined to discover dead bodies. This time she finds one of the contestants at the local barbecue cook-off dead and covered in barbecue sauce in a beer cooler. She should be used to stumbling onto corpses by now and the question of who killed the guy should pique her curiosity, but Emily decides to let Detective Lewis handle this one, at least until she figures his theory of who did the deed is wrong, wrong, wrong. Lewis’ denigration of Emily’s speculations is condescending enough to stimulate her dormant snooping skills. As the two of them go on their separate paths to find the killer, Lewis’ old partner, Toby the dirty, tobacco-spitting cop interferes in the investigation leaving Lewis with the wrong man in jail. Killers, bootleggers, barbecue and feral pigs—it’s a lethal game of hide and seek in the Florida swamp.

Review

I enjoyed this installment in the Big Lake Murders series. It was a delightful read. This installment finds our characters dealing with Emily finding a murder victim at the local barbecue cook-off.

I really enjoy Emily as a character as well as the others in these books. I think she’s quirky and fun. She does occasionally get herself into trouble, but she usually at least takes one other person with her so she’s not going into dangerous situations without backup.

I did know who the villain was way before the end of the book, but it wasn’t too disappointing as the parts of the book outside the mystery were also very interesting. The plot line moved along better in this one than in the first book. I didn’t have any time where I felt it was going too slow.

I’m definitely looking forward to the third book in this series!