Drawing on the area's small scale local agricultural and food production, Erin has turned Murphy's Merc into a welcoming place that features delicious locally grown food and locally made culinary goods. To kick off the store's new focus and feature the town's many gourmet restaurants, Erin and the rest of the town are in the midst of putting on a Festa Di Pasta when a murder of a close friend of Erin's mother puts a tragic spin on the event.

This is Budewitz's first novel-length mystery, and it's a good one. She has avoided the pitfalls of contrived plots, pushy amateur detectives and shallow connection to the deceased that plague a number of long-running cozy mystery series and has produced a book even a non-mystery reader will find engrossing and satisfying.

As a reader, you will come to care deeply about Erin and her family as well as the cast of characters, each with their own backstory and niche they fill in the small town of Jewel Bay, Montana.

Leslie Budewitz also deftly handles the expressions of grief the murder victim evokes from her friends and acquaintances, helping you become even more enmeshed in Erin's desire to find the killer.

Although romance and dating plays a certain role in Erin's life, her core relationship outside her family is one with the town's sheriff's detective, Kim Caldwell, an estranged friend who was as close as a sister when they were children. This is a hallmark of the maturity and care with which DEATH AL DENTE is crafted. It is not simply a formulaic cozy mystery, it is a novel strong enough to stand beyond the confines of its genre. I highly recommend it. Oh, and the recipes included at the back of the book look mouthwateringly delicious and simple to prepare, too.

Leslie Budewitz has published a non-fiction reference book called Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately about Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure as well as several short mystery stories and is currently working on the first book in another cozy mystery series, the Seattle Spice Shop series.

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