Murder in the Upper Crust Review: Deep Dish Mysteries #6 by Mindy Quigley

Read time: 5 minutes

📱📖 Read on Kindle (ARC via NetGalley)
📃 304 pages | ⏱ Duration: 4 hours
📅 Expected publication: October 27, 2026
Genre: Cozy Mystery
🏷️ Publisher name: Minotaur Books

Book Blurb:

In book six of the Deep Dish Mysteries, Chef Delilah O’Leary has agreed to cater a swanky wellness retreat hosted by superstar guru Rhiannon Frost for a who’s who crowd. The promised inner transformation goes sideways when a spiteful attendee turns up dead during a guided meditation. Every guest has a motive, and all of them can reach a walled garden of exotic poisonous plants. With her restaurant short-staffed and boyfriend Detective Calvin Capone splitting his time between bartending and undercover sleuthing, Delilah must untangle the lies before the killer strikes again.

Let’s talk … murder!!!

I’m back at Dee and Son’s Deep Dish, and boy, am I hungry. The crusty crusts, the sizzling mozzarella, the bubbling tomato sauce, and Calvin’s drinks to boot. I honestly don’t know how I got through this book without diving for the takeout flyer on my counter. This time Dee, Calvin, and the team are at a wellness retreat, where between meditations and aura checks, they have a killer in the group to hunt down.

This one had its highs and lows for me. The food, as always, is the star. You cannot read this book without craving pizza right now. Delilah’s relationships with Sonja and with Calvin feel more natural and true to the situation with each book, and I’m enjoying watching them grow as the series ages. The mystery itself made sense, and I never guessed the killer, so full marks there.

What didn’t sit well with me was the way the chief brought Delilah in to help with the investigation, which felt odd. The chief was also so scatterbrained that I kept wondering how she reached that position. And Calvin Capone as an undercover bartender? How does no one know he’s the police? I wasn’t sold on either premise. The pacing also dipped around the 40% mark and dragged toward the end. It could have been shorter, and I was speed-reading for much of the second half.

Still, I love the Deep Dish Mysteries and I’m not giving up on Mindy Quigley just yet. I can’t wait to see what Dee, Sonja, and Calvin get up to in future installments.

Would I recommend it?

Murder in the Upper Crust is a three star read for me. The pizza descriptions are dangerous to read on an empty stomach, Delilah’s relationships with Sonja and Calvin keep growing in a believable way, and the killer got past me completely. But the chief’s role in the investigation and Calvin’s undercover bartender gig never sold me, and the pacing sagged from about the 40% mark. If you already love the Deep Dish Mysteries, add this to your TBR and mark October 27 on your calendar. I’ll be back for the next one.

⭐⭐⭐

5 books to read next

1. Six Feet Deep Dish by Mindy Quigley. If this one made you curious how Delilah and Calvin’s story started, book one has the pizzeria opening, a cat named Butterball, and the first body.
   Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
   
2. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke. Another Midwest cozy where the baking gets as much page time as the sleuthing, with recipes to try.
   Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
   
3. Essence of Foul Play by Daryl Wood Gerber. A new spa owner turns sleuth after a rival is found dead around her grand opening, for anyone who liked the wellness angle here.
   Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
   
4. Meditation and Mischief by Elizabeth Pantley. A retreat with yoga, meditation and, of course, a dead body, if the retreat setting was your favourite part.
   Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert
   
5. Gossip Can Be Murder by Connie Shelton. A week at a plush Santa Fe spa retreat turns out to be darker than the massages suggest.
   Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary
   

Deep Dish or Thin Crust? Settle It in the Comments

Okay, pizza people, I need answers. Deep dish or thin crust? And if you’ve already read book six, did the wellness retreat setting work for you, or would you rather Delilah stayed in her kitchen? Drop your answers in the comments.

Book Links block

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