Public Anchovy #1: A Deep Dish Mystery

by Mindy Quigley

Overview

Public Anchovy #1 is the third book in Mindy Quigley's delectable Deep Dish Mystery series, set in a Wisconsin pizzeria.

While Geneva Bay’s upper crust gets ready to party down at a Prohibition-themed fundraiser, pizza chef Delilah O’Leary is focused on seeing her struggling restaurant through the winter slow season. The temperature outside is plummeting, but Delilah’s love life might finally be heating up, as hunky police detective Calvin Capone seems poised to (finally) make a move.

But Delilah’s hopes of perfecting a new “free-from” pizza recipe for a charity bash are dashed when a dead body crashes the party. Soon, Capone, Delilah, and her entire staff are trapped in an isolated mansion and embroiled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

To catch an increasingly-desperate killer, Delilah will have to top all of her previous crime-solving accomplishments, and a few pizzas, too.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250792471
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/26/2023
Series:	Deep Dish Mysteries , #3
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	21,522
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Originally from Chicago, MINDY QUIGLEY possesses a naturally sophisticated pizza palate. Her desert island pizza choice would be Lou Malnati’s “Deep Dish Lou” or an Aurelio’s thin-crust with spinach, tomatoes, and black olives. She is the author of the Deep Dish Mysteries and the Lindsay Harding Mystery series. She lives in Virginia with her history professor husband and their two children.

Editorial Reviews

"Shades of Agatha Christie in a modern whodunit." —Kirkus Reviews

"Quigley balances wonderful character development and plenty of low-key humor with the search for a killer. It’s hard to imagine a cozy fan who wouldn’t find this book to be a total delight." —First Clue

"In the hilariously delicious third installment of the Deep Dish Mystery series, a riveting, fun whodunit transpires." —Woman's World

Praise for the Deep Dish Mysteries:

"Witty, character-driven, and well-plotted....The satire is a joy, Delilah's narration is sheer pleasure, and her restaurant crew provides plenty of balance. This is turning out to be one of the best new cozy series going."
—First Clue on Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust

"Fun and engaging, [with] plenty of thrills...and toppings." —Parade on Six Feet Deep Dish

"Every now and again a cozy comes along in which the author not only checks off all of the boxes but does such an excellent job in the process that the book totally stands out from the crowd. This is the case with Six Feet Deep Dish....Droll and witty, sophisticated and credible, this is a series to watch out for." —First Clue (starred review) on Six Feet Deep Dish

"Funny, exciting, suspenseful... Delilah is a breath of fresh air." —Open Book Society (five stars) on Six Feet Deep Dish

"Your mouth will water from the first page of this delightful new cozy. You’ll also love the characters, and the perfectly plotted murder had me guessing the whole way through. Delilah is my new favorite amateur detective." —Paige Shelton, New York Times bestselling author on Six Feet Deep Dish

"Delilah O'Leary is as appealing as the pizzas she serves at her new restaurant. Fiercely loyal to her friends and employees, the strong willed, hugely competent Delilah is a cozy heroine for our times. I loved everything about her and her refreshing can-do attitude to cooking pizza, running her restaurant, and solving murders, along with the occasional healthy dose of insecurity! Six Feet Deep Dish is a wonderful start to a promising series, and I can't wait to visit Geneva Bay and enjoy more of whatever's being served at Delilah & Son." —Vicki Delany, National bestselling author

"Quigley pens a deliciously twisty mystery layered with salty suspects and packed with local flavor. Six Feet Deep Dish is sure to leave cozy readers drooling for more." —Julie Anne Lindsay, bestselling author

From the Publisher

2023-10-07
A restaurateur lands the catering job from hell.

Delilah O’Leary, who owns an upscale pizzeria in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin, lives in a lakefront mansion as caretaker to Butterball, the cat who owns the house, along with her Great-Aunt Biz, who’s bitter about losing her home over unpaid taxes. Though she's no reader herself, Delilah is catering Speakeasy Soirée, a 1920s-themed fundraiser to benefit the library. The first problem arises before she even arrives, when librarian Isabel Berney begs her to create a non-pizza pizza for a donor with severe allergies to wheat, cheese, and tomatoes. Arriving with her staff and food on the boat sent by hostess Pam Phillips to carry them across the lake, she learns the entertainment is singer Lola Capone—yes, that Capone family—the mother of Delilah’s dream man, pianist and detective Calvin Capone. Delilah runs into Edgar Clemmons, the outgoing Friends of the Library board chair, who makes several enigmatic statements, gives Delilah two books, and asks her to deliver them, along with an odd message, to her friend Sonya before he apparently falls down the steps and dies. Then Lola Capone discovers an animal hiding in the piano. It turns out to be Butterball, who Delilah fears had a paw in Clemmons’ death. Calvin Capone requests backup, but a nasty storm delays the officers’ arrival. So almost everyone leaves except for a few people who are trapped when a tree falls on the road. Delilah and her crew hope to solve the mystery of the not-so-accidental death before more official reinforcements arrive. The remaining guests have rocky relationships and secrets that lead to another death and a murder attempt before Capone and the wannabe sleuths solve the crimes.

Shades of Agatha Christie in a modern whodunit whose prime suspects keep getting killed off.

Kirkus Reviews