Do or Diner by Christine Wenger

🥞🥞🥞🥞 – 4 pancake stacks

When Trixie Matkowski’s uncle dies, leaving her aunt Stella alone and uninterested in running their famed Silver Bullet Diner, Trixie finds herself the proud new owner of the Silver Bullet, her aunt’s vacated Victorian home, the bait shop, and twelve vacation cottages along Lake Ontario, in Sandy Harbor, New York. Aunt Stella is moving on with her life in a comfortable retirement home. Trixie’s elated about her new properties, known as the point, but upon sifting through a mass of mail that includes many past due bills and a list of violations by the health inspector involving the Diner, Trixie realizes that the Silver Bullet could be shut down faster than she can assume responsibility for it. Trixie begins to feel as though she’s taken on more than she bargained for. Since aunt Stella is on a cruise around the world and inaccessible, Trixie makes her way over to the Diner to do damage control. But on her way there she learns that the health inspector appears to have died in the Silver Bullet. Who killed Marvin Cogswell III, and can Trixie help solve the mystery before news spreads of the fatality and she’s put out of business for good?

I enjoyed this cozy, especially Trixie’s character. She didn’t have a clue about how to run a Diner, who her employees were, or much of anything else when the book started. But she was tenacious, generous and hardworking, and those qualities served her well. There was a handsome Deputy Sheriff, Ty Brisco, who Trixie kept referring to as Wyatt Earp in the book. 😂 He made all of the ladies swoon when he called them darlin’ and tipped that cowboy hat when departing from their presence. I had many chuckles while reading parts of their dialog. In fact, there were quite a number of LOL moments throughout this book. What I liked most was that it flowed really well, made me laugh, had fun characters, and kept me guessing as to who killed the inspector. The reveal was not earth shattering, but it didn’t change my overall enjoyment of the book. Definitely recommended.

Oh, and I learned something new. Does anyone know what a wacky cake is? Well, if you don’t, the short answer is it’s a cake that you can whip up with a few ingredients, without eggs, milk or butter, in just one pan. Apparently people prepared it during the Depression when food was in short supply. I’ll let you know how it turns out as I’m determined to try it.

Wacky cake

Thank you, Kathy, of Katie’s Cottage Books, for doing a buddy read with me, even though you’re a much faster reader than I am. 😉

Thanks for reading everyone.