Sleep in Heavenly Pizza by Mindy Quigley: An Emotional Deep Dish Mystery Review

Read time: 5 minutes

🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Holly Adams ⏱ Duration: 9 hours
Genre: Culinary Cozy Mystery 🏷️ Publisher: SpotifyAudiobooks and Minotaur Books

Book Blurb:

The fourth book in the delectable Deep Dish Mystery series, set in a Wisconsin pizzeria. Pizza chef Delilah O’Leary and her kitty companion, Butterball, get into the holiday spirit as Geneva Bay, Wisconsin hosts the nation’s premier snow sculpting championship. The annual event transforms the charming resort town into a wonderland of snow castles, ice rinks, and cozy cups of cocoa. On the eve of the festival though, a too-good-to-be-true Chrismukkah catering gig brings some frosty tidings and heralds an unexpected visit from Delilah’s high-intensity older sister. Suddenly it seems that the holidays may not be the hap-happiest season of all. And when a missing party guest’s frozen corpse turns up inside one of the town’s snowy sculptures, murder threatens to put the celebrations—and Delilah’s crew—on ice for good.

Let’s talk … murder!!!

This book was emotional, dude! I couldn’t stop listening, eagerly waiting for what happens next. It really gripped me by the collar and forced me to remain till the end. There was no way I would have anticipated how this ended. Mindy Quigley threw an emotional doozy with this one.

The suspects were mostly our beloved characters or their families, like Rabbit, Jonathan (Dee’s brother in law), even Shay (Dee’s sister) to a point, and Daniel. I couldn’t bear the emotional investment that went into this book. Capone really had his plate full trying to navigate an investigation and figuring out how to handle Delilah with all the suspects being so close to her. And I appreciate their relationship too. They managed to navigate this difficult time with full transparency and absolute maturity. Delilah knows Capone is just doing his job and that it hurts him just as much as it hurts her, and Capone tries his best to keep Delilah in the loop, so if there is something he isn’t being told because he’s a cop, maybe they will still trust Delilah to share the full truth, and maybe they will be exonerated from this crime.

This book takes you on a roller coaster ride. Every single chapter brings you more invested in the story, unwittingly side-eyeing the characters you trusted for the past three books, even while you feel terribly guilty for doubting them because they are now like your family too. I kept waiting to see how Mindy would circumnavigate and bring these people out of the suspicion spotlight, even while having this horrifying thought: what if they are indeed the culprit?

The narration is brilliant by Holly Adams. She raises the bar in this one by giving slight intonation shifts to some character voices, to make it easily identifiable who’s talking at any given time. Holly always did a slightly different accent for Aunty Biz, but this time I could identify Shay, Piper, and Sonja just as clearly.

One thing though. Delilah and Calvin are now dating. Why is Dee still calling him “Capone” and not Calvin, his first name? Dude, no!!!!

Would I recommend it?

Absolutely, without hesitation. Sleep in Heavenly Pizza is Mindy Quigley at her most emotionally ruthless, turning three books’ worth of trusted friends into suspects and making you feel guilty for even entertaining the thought. Holly Adams narrates it beautifully, giving each character her own distinct voice so you’re never lost even mid-chaos. I went in expecting a cozy holiday whodunit and came out completely wrecked, in the best way. This is easily one of the strongest entries in the Deep Dish Mysteries series so far… and no, I’m not side-eyeing Rabbit every again.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

5 books to read next:

• A Deadly Éclair by Daryl Wood Gerber
  If you love a culinary cozy where the food is basically its own character, start Daryl Wood Gerber’s French Bistro Mysteries here. Same comfort-food-meets-murder energy as Delilah’s pizzeria, just set in a Napa Valley bistro instead.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• Christmas Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke
  For more holiday-season baking and small-town suspicion, this one digs into Hannah Swensen’s past in a way that feels just as emotionally layered as Sleep in Heavenly Pizza.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Diva Wraps It Up by Krista Davis
  Krista Davis brings the same cozy-holiday-chaos vibe here, with a Christmas cookie swap gone very wrong and a cast of friends you won’t want to suspect either.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• Candy Slain Murder by Maddie Day
  Another Christmas-season cozy with a found-family cast, this one has that same small-town, everyone-is-a-suspect tension that made Sleep in Heavenly Pizza such a ride.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• A Midwinter’s Tail by Sofie Kelly
  For a winter cozy with an equally lovable animal sidekick, Kathleen Paulson and her magical cats bring the same small-town holiday charm that makes Delilah and Butterball’s world so easy to sink into.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert

Who Do You Trust When Everyone’s a Suspect?

Have you ever finished a book feeling guilty for suspecting characters you love? Tell me in the comments who you side-eyed hardest in this one, and whether you’re Team Capone or Team Calvin on the nickname debate.

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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