Where's the Beef? — Deb Pines

Where's the Beef is the second book, and only novelette, in Deb Pines' traditional whodunit Chautauqua Mysteries featuring the wise and witty reporter sleuth of a certain age Mimi Goldman. An Agatha Christie for the text-message age, IndieReader calls the series. After solving multiple murders in her splashy 2013 debut, Mimi Goldman, the lovable New York City expat/single mom/Chautauquan Daily reporter, is back! This time, she faces a more lighthearted challenge: Where's the beef? Or, really: What's become of meat deliveries that keep disappearing from a locked kitchen in the Rosebriar, a rooming-house in the historic Chautauqua Institution? Instantly, Mimi finds multiple suspects including a bitter Rosebriar guest, a prankster delivery kid and a shadowy employee. She even finds a little romance, in Walt Dellaria, a sexy engineer and ruthless Scrabble match. But the central question, Where's the Beef?, is a tough-to-solve puzzle. A twist at the end makes this whodunit also a memorable howdunit and unputdownable quick read. Fans of Agatha Christie and Louise Penny and Only Murders in the Building will enjoy this twist-filled tale that one reviewer called a locked-room mystery that kept me guessing until the end.