THE KIELBASA KILLER

A granddaughter and grandmother sleuthing pair are confronted by a murder that puts their whole family in danger.

Lydia Wienewski has her hands full trying to save the family butcher shop while working to open her own place, Lydia’s Lakeside Cafe and Bakery, in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga. As her father recovers from a stroke, Lydia’s running the store with some help from her younger sister, Teri; Teri’s new boyfriend, Johnny Bello; and Aunt Vi, who does the books, which Lydia suspects she’s cooking. Determined to enroll in pastry school in Ottawa, Lydia had broken up with Stan Gorski, but she dropped out before completing the course, and Stan’s back in the picture. Her 65-year-old grandma Mary is a piece of work who wants to pitch in, too. Lydia’s been pushed to pay bills not yet due by the shop’s longtime meat supplier, Louie McDaniel. So when Lydia finds his dead body in the family’s backyard smokehouse, her relatives are all suspects. The first cop on the scene is her cousin, and the man in charge is Det. Nowicki, known as Harry to her grandmother, who went to school with him. Lydia and Mary, who often watch detective shows together, decide that they have to identify the killer in order to save the family business, which people are already avoiding. The comedy of errors that follows turns up a gaggle of clues attesting that local knowledge is of more importance than professional experience.

An amusing mystery with a pronounced Buffalo vibe.