When the Grits Hit the Fan by Maddie Day (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"Despite the bitter winter in South Lick, Indiana, business is still hot at Robbie Jordan’s restaurant. But when another murder rattles the small town, can Robbie defrost the motives of a cold-blooded killer?

Before she started hosting dinners for Indiana University’s Sociology Department at Pans ‘N Pancakes, Robbie never imagined scholarly meetings could be so hostile. It’s all due to Professor Charles Stilton, who seems to thrive on heated exchanges with his peers and underlings, and tensions flare one night after he disrespects Robbie’s friend, graduate student Lou. So when Robbie and Lou go snowshoeing the next morning and find the contentious academic frozen under ice, police suspect Lou might have killed him after their public tiff. To prove her friend’s innocence, Robbie is absorbing local gossip about Professor Stilton’s past and developing her own thesis on the homicide—even if that means stirring up terrible danger for herself along the way . . ."

My Thoughts:

Three books in and this series is going strong!  I actually think that this is my favorite book of the series yet.  There are just so many things to enjoy and because of that I read this book in less than two days.  That is almost unheard of for me!  One of the things that I enjoy most about this series is reading about Robbie's cooking while working at her restaurant Pans 'N Pancakes.  It is such fun to read about the different breakfast and lunch combinations that she comes up with.  Also, it never fails to make me super hungry while reading and usually for breakfast type foods.  I've come to realize that the majority of my favorite cozy mysteries all feature food.  I'm not sure what that says about me as a reader.  LOL!  But I do really, really enjoy the scenes where Robbie is busy working in her restaurant with all of the delicious descriptions of the food that she makes. 

I really enjoyed the mystery portion of this book as well.  The author gave the story a sort of Nancy Drew feel with a hidden tunnel and other fun secrets.  As I was a huge Nancy Drew fan in my youth, I couldn't get enough of this book because of it.  I really enjoyed the fact that the author had me guessing on the killer throughout almost the entire book.  I also really enjoyed that in this book we got to see more of Robbie's relationship with Abe.  I've been hoping for this since the very first book so consider me a happy reader.  I just really enjoyed this book (obviously) and don't have anything bad to say about it.  My only complaint is that now I have to wait for book four.  LOL!  It's so hard to wait when these books are so good.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am left so excited about this series!  I've really come to enjoy my time in South Lick, Indiana with all of these characters.  Robbie is someone that I would want to be friends with in real life and I just love all of the other secondary characters as well.  With fast-paced mysteries and that whodunnit feel I adore, I just can't seem to get enough of these books.  I would recommend these books to cozy mystery and mystery fans alike.  Highly recommended!

Bottom Line:  My favorite of the series so far!  So good!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.