Stabbed in the Baklava

by Tina Kashian

Author Tina Kashian draws heavily on real life for background and details as she composes her Kitchen Kabab Mystery Series. Like Lucy, her heroine, Tina Kashian grew up working all the various necessary jobs in her parents’ Armenian restaurant on the New Jersey coast. She later worked as a lawyer honing her investigative expertise. Now she puts all of her skills together to create mouth-watering cozy mysteries.

In Stabbed in the Baklava, when Lucy Berberian and her staff cater a celebrity wedding reception, a murder victim is found. To save Lucy’s head chef, Lucy and her friend Katie work hard to find the perpetrator amidst a lot of possibilities. It seems everyone has a secret, and the secrets cause a lot of pain and misunderstandings. Lucy has to get to the bottom of the puzzle to save lives and satisfy justice.

This is a fast-moving cozy mystery with lots of twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. Several times the author uses Lucy to clearly review the complicated plot as the events appear at that point in the story—not a bad technique of summary and clarification. The ending unravels in a surprising and satisfying conclusion.

I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Mystery

Notes:  This second book in the Kitchen Kabab Mystery Series works well as a standalone. The author fills the reader in on background from the first book in the series thoroughly but not tediously.

Publication:   August 28, 2018—Kensington Books

Memorable Lines:

A chrome and black Harley-Davidson motorcycle was in the driveway, its engine purring like a large contented beast. A tall, good-looking, dark-haired man wearing faded jeans and a leather jacket walked out of the garage and halted by the Harley. Lucy couldn’t see his eyes from this distance, but she knew they were as bright blue as the sky on a sultry, summer day at the beach.

A knot tightened in Lucy’s stomach, and she struggled with an unexpected uncertainty. If she was getting better at misleading people in order to gather information, what did that say about her?

Lucy’s mind had seen what it expected to see rather than seeing the truth.