Bookbox - ABC VBB; took from the ABC VBB because the title was too cute to pass up. Trixie moves to NY state to run the family's Silver Bullet diner & take ownership of the house & cottages on "the point" of Lake Ontario. Only it appears that someone has deadly motives, when the food inspector dies when eating in her diner, threatening to put her out of business right away. Cozy mystery with lots of hometown folks to meet, as Trixie keeps stepping on hunky deputy's toes trying to solve the mystery before she gets run out of town. ( )

Following her divorce, Trixie Matkowski returns to upstate New York to run the family business, The Silver Bullet Diner. As a child, she spent summers there and the place is filled with pleasant memories for her. But she wonders if buying the Diner from her aunt may have been a mistake when the health inspector is poisoned by the blue plate special. Small town gossip spreads like wildfire and soon locals are avoiding the diner. To save her Diner from bankruptcy, Trixie joins forces with local deputy, Ty Brisco, to discover who murdered the health inspector.

This book was a fun read. The mystery portion of the plot was interesting and engaging. The characters were as well developed as they can be in a cozy mystery. Trixie is a likable main character. The mandatory local hunk, Ty Brisco, is steamily sexy. And the bad guys are despicable and horrid, as required. The diner background theme is great! I love"Dinerese'' ! At the Silver Bullet Diner, a cowboy on a raft, two lead pipes with zeppelins and one bowwow with bullets is actually a western omelet with toast, spaghetti with sausage, and a hotdog and beans.

As with most culinary themed cozy mysteries, Do or Diner has recipes in the back. After the murderer is dragged off to prison, warm up the kitchen! I was pleasantly surprised that the book includes two main course recipes, not just desserts. As someone who can't have refined sugars due to medical reasons, I get a bit bummed out when a foodie cozy has only cookie or pie recipes. It's understandable if it's a cupcake bakery or cookie themed book, but when it's a restaurant theme, bring on the meat and veg! :)

I read this book as part of the SaveOurCozies readathon. Recently Penguin/Berkely publishing cancelled at least 24 of its cozy mystery series. Some of the cancelled series were favorites of mine! Do or Diner is book 1 of the 5-book Comfort Food Mystery series, which is unfortunately on the list of cancelled series. I am hopeful that Wenger will be able to continue the series. If not, I hope she starts a new cozy series. I enjoyed her writing style. ( )

Trixie Matkowski is recently divorced and has moved to a small town in upstate New York, where she's purchased her widowed aunt's diner, home, and vacation cottages. She plans on running the diner just as her family has done for generations, and renting out the cabins every summer to tourists.

But when she checks the mail, she sees a notice that states the health inspector is due that very day, and heads over to diner to see if she can fix the small infractions that were listed. But it seems as if the inspector has already arrived...and left permanently. He's dead, and it seems her daily special has killed him.

But Trixie notices that there are mushrooms in the mix, and her special doesn't contain mushrooms. Now it's up to Deputy Ty Brisco and the rest of the police department to figure out who poisoned the man and why. But Trixie knows if it isn't found out soon, her diner may close forever...

I really wanted to like this book, but Trixie - and Ty - grated on my nerves. Trixie is newly divorced and it seems had no problem walking away from her cheating husband while selling him every single thing that she owns. Really? The girlfriend got her husband, but she also gets the house and all the antiques she's acquired in ten years of marriage and, even though Trixie got paid nicely for it, she has no problem handing over her entire life - and husband - to another woman? This just doesn't ring true. There was nothing she wanted to keep? Nothing that mattered more than money? She didn't have any feelings about him cheating and just handed over everything? She seems odd right off the bat.

Then, her aunt sells her the diner and leaves. She doesn't spend any time with her showing her how everything works, who the employees are, how she pays the bills/employees, etc. Obviously her aunt doesn't care if the diner fails, because she doesn't care if Trixie knows how to run it. The cook is a hysterical nut job, the handymen royal jerks. The two waitresses make goo-goo eyes at Ty and ignore everyone else when he's around. (There must be a dearth of handsome men in this town). Her aunt and Juanita have things in common - when a new cook is hired, Juanita bails on her without showing her the ropes.

Then, because she's afraid of losing customers, she starts giving away coffee and food. I guess she has no idea what profits are, either. She must have gotten a lot of money from turning over her home and possessions to her ex-husband.

But I really lost interest when it was painfully obvious that Trixie had just been running the diner for about an hour and Ty accuses her of murder. Oh, sure. She had no idea who the health inspector was, had no feelings of hatred for him, but decided to kill him because he was going to give her a bad rating. Yeah, that's believable. I'm stunned that this man barely meets her and decides she's capable of murdering someone she's never met. I guess he figures because she's new in town she must be guilty.

At any rate, the book lost me at that point, and I really, really like mysteries and try to give them a chance. But these things caused me to lose enjoyment in the book, and therefore, in the entire series. Sorry, but I couldn't like it and see no reason to read any others in the series. ( )

It was very entertaining and light. ( )

Trixie is very competent at running her aunt’s diner. Her management skills are tested when the food inspector dies eating one of her meals. As with most cozy mysteries, there is a good-looking law-enforcement officer than has Trixie on a person of interest list and is conducting more than a professional investigation of all her movements. Recipes are included. It is a quick read and easy to figure out whom did it. ( )