The Kielbasa Killer

June 1, 2023
A granddaughter and grandmother sleuthing pair are confronted by a murder that puts their whole family in danger. Lydia Wienewski has her hands full trying to save the family butcher shop while working to open her own place, Lydia's Lakeside Cafe and Bakery, in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga. As her father recovers from a stroke, Lydia's running the store with some help from her younger sister, Teri; Teri's new boyfriend, Johnny Bello; and Aunt Vi, who does the books, which Lydia suspects she's cooking. Determined to enroll in pastry school in Ottawa, Lydia had broken up with Stan Gorski, but she dropped out before completing the course, and Stan's back in the picture. Her 65-year-old grandma Mary is a piece of work who wants to pitch in, too. Lydia's been pushed to pay bills not yet due by the shop's longtime meat supplier, Louie McDaniel. So when Lydia finds his dead body in the family's backyard smokehouse, her relatives are all suspects. The first cop on the scene is her cousin, and the man in charge is Det. Nowicki, known as Harry to her grandmother, who went to school with him. Lydia and Mary, who often watch detective shows together, decide that they have to identify the killer in order to save the family business, which people are already avoiding. The comedy of errors that follows turns up a gaggle of clues attesting that local knowledge is of more importance than professional experience. An amusing mystery with a pronounced Buffalo vibe.

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May 8, 2023
Set in 1982, this unremarkable cozy from Krotow (the Shop ’Round the World series) sees 29-year-old Lydia Wienewski returning to her Upstate New York hometown with dreams of opening her own bakery after a stint at pastry school in Canada. Instead, her father’s recent stroke means she has to take the reins at the family business, Wienewski’s Wieners & Meats. With Easter around the corner and Wienewski’s smoked kielbasa a holiday staple for the town’s Polish community, Lydia braces for the rush; to add to her stress, her meat supplier is hassling her for payment her father owed, and she suspects an employee might be stealing money. When the meat supplier ends up dead in the Wienewski family’s backyard smoke house with an antique sausage pricker protruding from his neck, local police suspect Lydia and her Grandma Mary, a crime show aficionado. To clear their names, the duo teams up to investigate on their own. Krotow includes enticing recipes for cheesecake and traditional Polish coffee cakes, but her simple, linear plot offers no surprises. Cozy fans have plenty of better options. Agent: Emily Sylvan Kim, Prospect Agency.