The Kielbasa Killer: A Kielbasa Queen Mystery

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. (July)