Funeral Food

Do you ever get tired of mystery heroines being 5'8" and 120 pounds with hair to die for? Tory Bauer, our heroine in Kathleen Taylor's series, is short, frumpy and a waitress with sore feet. Her philandering husband has died (in a car crash while out with a college cheerleader). Delphi, South Dakota, is like any small town on the prairie: everybody's nose is in your business, during the brief lulls in the talk about the miserable weather.So why do I like these books? I really do like them. Kathleen Taylor can spin a great yarn, and in her own indomitable fashion, Tory Bauer, our heroine, rises above the constraints of her small town life and depressing circumstances, and figures out who-done-it.In this case Tory finds the body of a young Mormon missionary in the storage closet at the cafe. The clues are there but nicely hidden and the ending comes as quite a surprise.I've come to care about the eccentrics in Delphi through these books and am eagerly awating publication of the latest in August.

Delphi, South Dakota is a dusty, pin prick of a town where life revolves around the cafe and a beer with olives tossed in, is called a South Dakota Martini. That is, until Tory Bauer, a widowed, over forty waitress, who's hooked on mystery novels, finds Mormon missionary, Charles Winston bludgeoned to death in the Delphi Cafe mop closet. Now, the town is in chaos, Tory is looking for answers and some of the best kept secrets are coming out of their hiding places. Ms Taylor has put together a colorful cast of characters that come alive on the page. The writing and dialogue are terrific, with descriptions so vivid that you'll be laughing out loud and enough twists and turns to keep you turning pages. This is a story you won't want to put down and fortunately, it is easily read in one sitting. Funeral Food has it all...great characters, good plot and a mystery that keeps you guessing to the very end.

Kathleen Taylor, herself a resident of a small town in South Dakota, understands the workings of small towns perfectly. She also understands the art of mystery writing. A must read if you know nothing about the midwest.

This was my first Kathleen Taylor and I enjoyed it so much that I immediately ordered her other two Tory Bauer books. I love Tory and her wry attitude about her life and the people around her. This is a funny book with realistic characters.The end was a bit much but not to the point that it ruined the book. For readers who like their mysteries with a lighter touch, this is one to read.

If you have not already read Kathleen Taylor's Tory Bauer mysteries, you've missed some sprightly good times. Not to worry, though. As it turns out, FUNERAL FOOD, her latest book published by Avon is actually the *first* in the series. It was originally published in a very small edition as THE MISSIONARY POSITION and was tied up with legalities. Avon, knowing they had something good, went ahead and published two other books in the series, SEX AND SALMONELLA and HOTEL SOUTH DAKOTA. Now, the legal issues out of the way, Avon offers us the prequel. Tory Bauer is a widowed, mature, Rubenesque waitress in Delphi, South Dakota's only cafe. She lives in a trailer with her ex-husband's lusty cousin, Del, and Del's teen-age son, Presley. Delphi is filled with memorable characters we like because of or despite their respective eccentricities. Working as a waitress and living in Delphi are uneventful until Tory finds a young Mormon, new to the community, in.....you got it.....the missionary position.....that is, "flat-out, stone cold dead." In trying to understand why anyone would kill the young missionary, Tory discovers many things about herself, about those she loves, and her neighbors. The ending is, well, a Kathleen Taylor ending. You don't stop thinking about this book when it's finished. You want to read the other two.....again, if you've already read them. Kathleen Taylor's terrific good humor, careful characterizations, and interesting plots place her among the best of the new mystery writers. She leaves you with a charming turn-of-phrase here, a delightful metaphor there, and many, many laughs along the way. Harry Barnard