Books

REVIEWS

“Sur­risi sur­rounds her pushy pro­tag­o­nist with teen peers who join the inves­ti­ga­tion with vary­ing degrees of reluc­tance, and stocks the adult sup­port­ing cast with plen­ty of sus­pects, obvi­ous and oth­er­wise. She also tucks in much eat­ing and drink­ing in order to cre­ate com­i­cal con­trasts between the new eatery’s haute cui­sine (‘lob­ster quenelle poached in sea­weed broth and fin­ished with a beam of light’) and Gusty’s mouth­wa­ter­ing pies, pas­tries, and like plain fare. Young fans of both cozies and food­ie-themed tales will find much to savor in this lat­est out­ing.” (Book­list)

“Plen­ty of red her­rings will keep read­ers guess­ing until the cli­max.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“I like that this mys­tery has enough adven­ture and ten­sion to make it a com­pelling read. But like its pre­de­ces­sors, it’s not too scary or vio­lent for mid­dle grade read­ers. I kind of wish Quin­nie would trust her moth­er to help her more when she finds clues or dis­cov­ers new evi­dence. Quin­nie’s mom is also Maid­en Rock­’s sher­iff. And while Quin­nie wants to solve things on her own, she fre­quent­ly com­pro­mis­es evi­dence or cre­ates new prob­lems that only com­pli­cate efforts to find the cul­prit in the restau­rant mis­chief. That frus­trates the grownup in me, but I’m sure this book will be a pop­u­lar mys­tery among young read­ers.” (Jana the Teacher, blog)