Public Anchovy #1 Review: Mindy Quigley’s Best Deep Dish Mystery Yet

Read time: 5 minutes

🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Holly Adams ⏱ Duration: 10 hours
Genre: Culinary Cozy Mystery 🏷️ Publisher: Spotify Audiobooks and St. Martin’s Paperback

Book Blurb:

Public Anchovy #1 is the third book in Mindy Quigley’s delectable Deep Dish Mystery series, set in a Wisconsin pizzeria. The third book in the series finds pizza chef Delilah O’Leary focused on getting her Wisconsin restaurant through the winter slow season, while her simmering romance with police detective Calvin Capone finally seems ready to heat up. When Geneva Bay’s elite gather for a Prohibition-themed charity fundraiser, Delilah’s hopes for a showstopping “free-from” pizza are dashed by a dead body crashing the party. Soon she, Capone, and her entire staff are snowed in at an isolated mansion with a killer, cut off from help until morning. To catch the culprit, Delilah will need to top every crime she’s solved before, and bake a few pizzas along the way.

Let’s talk … murder!!!

Public Anchovy #1 gives a nice spin to a closed room mystery, this time building a closed house mystery instead, where a Prohibition themed fundraiser sees a murder and the entire group gets snowed in with no rescue until morning.

Now I can no longer blame the Stockholm syndrome. Mindy Quigley really comes through with book 3, making it even grippier than the first two books. Aunt Biz and Butterball get a prominent presence in this book, either as a strong presence in the background, or actually pivotal in catching the killer. The storyline feels more believable than the other two books, and the (kinda-sorta) slow burn romance builds up stronger with this one.

Sam slowly moves out of the story (which I am glad of), and the other cast and crew in Delilah’s team gets more visibility. We see more of Det. Calvin Capone’s family, and I love the way Mindy brings in a humane version of “meeting your supposed crush’s family” without a lot of unnecessary better-than-thou drama. I was also a bit skeptical about the age difference between Delilah and Calvin, as Calvin is a grandfather, but this book puts me at ease with 35 and 42 years old respectively.

But you know what?

One thing I want to call out: I have read very few cozies where the MC is not a book lover. It feels so out of place reading a book, written by an author who must love books (how else do you become an author), writing about a character who does not like reading. The effort Mindy would have had to put in to write such a character is impressive.

The book was gripping till the very last, and the final clues coming together felt believable, which made it even better. One issue I had at the end was that Detective Capone and Delilah had the same clues in the same situation, but Delilah is the one who closes things out. The detective seems a bit slow on the uptake. I have to say though, I am jealous of Delilah’s recall capacity. The way she recalls Clemens’ message to Sonja verbatim, even after going through a near-traumatic event, is commendable. I barely remember what I did two hours ago and I’m not even near any trauma. That’s what makes her a fictional character, I guess.

I am keeping on with the series. You must too. Don’t be discouraged by book one, the series gets better with every book from here.

Would I recommend it?

Public Anchovy #1 is where the Deep Dish Mysteries series really hits its stride. The snowed-in, closed-house setup gives this one a tension the first two books didn’t quite have, and the slow burn between Delilah and Calvin keeps building in exactly the right way. The mystery holds up, the found-family cast gets room to shine, and yes, I’m still jealous of Delilah’s memory. If you bounced off book one, don’t give up. This is the one that convinces you to stay for book four.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

5 Book Recommendations:

• Sleep in Heavenly Pizza by Mindy Quigley The fourth Deep Dish Mystery, and the natural next stop if Public Anchovy #1 finally sold you on Delilah and Calvin. More Geneva Bay, more Butterball, more of the slow burn you just watched build.

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• An Appetite for Murder by Lucy Burdette If you liked watching a foodie heroine juggle a struggling career and an inconvenient romance while stumbling into murder, Hayley Snow’s first Key West Food Critic mystery scratches the same itch with a sunnier, saltier setting.

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• Eleven Pipers Piping by C.C. Benison Want more of that trapped-with-a-killer tension? This one strands its cast at a Burns Night dinner during a snowstorm, no pizza involved, but the same “nobody in this room is getting out until morning” dread.

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• The Burnt Orange Sunrise by David Handler Another snowbound-mansion mystery, this time with a journalist and a small-town resident police chief picking through clues while a storm cuts off the whole estate. A good pick if the closed-house setup was your favorite part of Public Anchovy #1.

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• Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke For the slow burn crowd specifically: Hannah Swenson’s series kicks off here, and it’s the culinary cozy that basically wrote the book on will-they-won’t-they tension running alongside the murder plot.

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Snowed In With a Killer: Would You Have Survived the Night?

Have you read the Deep Dish Mysteries? Did book one win you over right away, or did it take a few books like it did for me? And be honest, could you have kept your cool trapped in a mansion overnight with a murderer loose downstairs? Tell me in the comments.

Book Links:

Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below. These sites work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your book orders. #SupportLocal

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