With a high-stakes barbecue contest coming to town, Sophie “Phee” Kimball’s friends will get raked over the coals when one of the contestants is murdered . . .
Sun City West is abuzz with the news that the Food Network is sponsoring a local barbecue cook-off and that Phee’s friends from the pinochle club are in the finals. But the mood soon darkens when the county planning committee announces a plan to situate a new garbage transfer station on the town’s edge. With tempers flaring and rumors of corruption swirling, it comes as little surprise when the committee’s chair, who happens to be a finalist in the cook-off, is found murdered.
When Phee’s friends are named as the most likely suspects, she knows the accusation stinks to high heaven. As she navigates a world of politics and payoffs, she discovers there are any number of community members, along with the committee itself, who had a reason to want the chair dead. With the barbecue contest in full swing and celebrity chefs on hand to judge, Phee will have to sniff out the clues, no matter how noxious, to catch a killer . . .