Author Robin Allen cooks up another savory delight readers will eat up in STICK A FORK IN IT, the second book in the series about Austin/Travis County health inspector Poppy Markham: Culinary Cop.

Enticing appetizers for cozy mystery connoisseurs are promptly served in Chapter One of this humorous, clean book, starting with the author’s great opening line and first paragraph.

“A couple of weeks ago, an employee at my father’s restaurant
tried to kill me by setting my bedroom on fire. … When that
didn’t work, he tried to lock me in the restaurant’s walk-in
refrigerator and freeze me to death.”

Readers’ appetites are whetted further with the promise that much more of “the good stuff” is surely to follow because Allen continues to throw in one intriguing morsel right after the other as each page is turned.

Poppy’s first assignment in STICK A FORK IN IT is to perform a food permit inspection for a new Austin restaurant that is decorated inside and out to resemble a prison and is named “Capital Punishment.” The items on the menu are each named after a death row inmate and consist of what food the condemned truly asked for as a last meal request. For example, if a diner craves two pints of mint chocolate-chip ice cream, then the meal to order would be a “Timothy McVeigh.”

The main plot of this novel is that before Capital Punishment can get everything up to par to pass inspection, a death occurs. One of the restaurant’s owners, Troy Sharpe, is found with a rope around his neck, hanging in the middle of the dining room. Or wait … IS it Troy, or is it his twin brother Todd? “Culinary Cop” (and former chef) Poppy Markham intends to solve this “whodunit” mystery in the two weeks or so before Capital Punishment’s scheduled opening night.

I loved author Allen’s voice and her clever humor in her first book, IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT, and Allen doesn’t disappoint in bringing that same great style to Stick a Fork In It. For instance, several witty comments are always tossed back and forth each time a conversation occurs between Poppy and her ex-boyfriend Jamie, who is a former newspaper journalist and current freelance food writer. One example is when Poppy and Jamie are discussing Jeffrey Dahmer, the convicted serial killer nicknamed “The Milwaukee Cannibal.” Poppy asks Jamie, “What do you think was his last meal?” and Jamie answers, “Manwiches.” I laughed out loud on that one!

Speaking of Poppy’s ex, I noticed an interesting thing about Jamie’s website, which includes such things as restaurant reviews and food trends. The site is named “Amooze-Boosh,” and if you Google that funny-sounding name, you’ll discover that’s also the name of author Allen’s blog. I thinks that’s cool the way Allen includes that part of her professional writing life in this fictional story.

Just like with Allen’s first book, I once again enjoyed the food-related descriptions in this second book, such as: “I sat in my Jeep in the Markham’s parking lot roasting like a Peking duck while I pondered Daisy’s insight.” The author also has a talent for using other descriptions and making comparisons that are never trite, such as: “Her eyes grew as wide as Vinnie Barbarino’s bell-bottoms.”

Author Allen did a great job in keeping this reviewer from guessing the killer’s identity in STICK A FORK IN IT. I’m pretty sure regardless if other readers solve the mystery or not, once a reader has sampled some of author Robin Allen’s creations, a request for seconds will surely follow.