In A. L. Herbert's latest Mahalia Watkins Soul Food Mysteries, MURDER WITH MACARONI AND CHEESE you will be served up delicious recipes and a brilliant mystery! As a lover of cozy mysteries, I found this one to be down to earth, with such lively characters! I can almost picture Herbert's characters in my own memory of my school days as she described each one. From Raynell, who was the meanest of all popular girls, to Gregory, the not special turned into Mr. Scrumptious that every woman is falling for!

Halia and her Mahalia Sweet Tea restaurant is asked to host the high school reunion at the last minute by Raynell Rollins, the popular girl that everyone disliked because of her mean ways in high school. In her condescending way, she gets Halia to help organize when all Halia wanted to do is not get involved. However, Halia gets involved more than she expected when a dead body turns up. The day after the reunion, Raynell is found dead and there is a whole list of people that would love to get revenge. Will Halia and her cousin Wavonne be able to find out who did it before it is too late?

This is one of my favorite cozy mysteries of the year! The characters had me laughing and smiling throughout the pages. Herbert has an appetizing series here with mysteries that have a twist at the end and dynamic characters. MURDER WITH MACARONI AND CHEESE by A. L. Herbert is the first book I've read in this series. It can be read alone, but you will want to go back and get the first in the series.