Book Review: If Onions Could Spring Leeks by Paige Shelton
It's always sad to see something end, but when it's on a high note, you get a satisfying closure.
And this is how the Cooking School Mysteries deserves to end.
In the final installment, Betts Winston is summoned to the past, via the ghosts of Grace and Robert, lovers who had planned to move up north and be married. Unfortunately, Grace was murdered and Robert believes she simply did not want to marry him and never arrived in Broken Rope, Missouri in the summer of 1888.
Grace did arrive to meet him, but was also being pursued by another love interest, Justice, whom she agreed to leave with if she didn't find Robert. This is the first part of the mystery.
In present day, Betts discovers the body of multiple married Derek Rowlett in a barn. Having discovered him, she is whacked across the head and his murderer hopes that she too would have died. Not so.
Thus begins the present day mystery of who would want to kill Derek. Could it be one of his five ex-wives or someone else? He wasn't the most liked fellow in town, nor was he the most least liked. He was just, well, Derek.
With the help of her ghost friend, Jerome, the two try and solve both mysteries, however, this time, Jerome can possess a body and he and Betts actually share a physical kiss on more than one occasion. While she still struggles with her crush for Jerome, her boyfriend Cliff, jokingly says that he's not jealous of this Jerome guy and he doesn't know that she (and her grandmother Missouri Anna Winston) can communicate with the dead.
As with past installments, author Paige Shelton tells not one, but two stories which tie in together. There's never a dull moment and when weaving the past and present together, she does it effortlessly. It's no wonder these mysteries have always been hard to put down.
Betts and her friends will greatly be missed, but in this day of reboots, who knows? Maybe Betts and company may return someday.
Cooking School Mysteries:
If Fried Chicken Could Fly
If Mashed Potatoes Could Dance
If Bread Could Rise To The Occasion
If Catfish Had Nine Lives
If Onions Could Spring Leeks
