The Quiche and the Dead

Written by Kirsten Weiss

Narrated by Renée Chambliss

Is Val's breakfast pie the quiche of death?

Owning her own business seemed like pie in the sky to Valentine Harris when she moved to the coastal California town of San Nicholas, expecting to start a new life with her fiance. Five months-and a broken engagement-later, at least her dream of opening a pie shop has become a reality. But when one of her regulars keels over at the counter while eating a quiche, Val feels like she's living a nightmare.

After the police determine the customer was poisoned, business at Pie Town drops faster than a fallen crust. Convinced they're both suspects, Val's flaky, seventy-something pie crust maker Charlene drags her boss into some amateur sleuthing. At first Val dismisses Charlene's half-baked hypotheses, but before long the ladies uncover some shady dealings hidden in fog-bound San Nicholas. Now Val must expose the truth-before a crummy killer tries to shut her pie hole.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Aug 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781977387400

Reviews for The Quiche and the Dead

[Janet Hebbert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A lovely light murder mystery with charming characters. Looking forward to the next in series.

[ginduperre · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Valentine Harris thought life was going to be great. She would be a business owner and have a new life with her fiancé after moving to the town of San Nicholas, CA. Five months later her engagement was over. Her dream of running a pie shop was real, but she was barely scraping by. As luck would have it one of Val’s regular customers dies at the counter while eating one of her quiches. Now she must find the killer to save her business from ruin.

The police determine the customer was poisoned, and business at Pie Town drops to nothing. Val's flaky, seventy-something pie crust maker Charlene convinces Val that they are both suspects. They decide, Val unwillingly, to investigate on their own. After all, Charlene was a bit odd and her half-baked hypotheses unlikely. It doesn’t take long for the two of them to uncover some shady hidden dealings and become real targets.

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Series: A Pie Town Mystery – Book 1
Author: Kristen Weiss
Genre: Culinary Cozy
Publisher: Kensington


The Quiche and the Dead is an excellent start to a new series. Kristen Weiss has composed a highly enjoyable and exciting story with a cast of characters the reader will fall in love with. The town of San Nicholas is a quaint setting for this story and holds plenty of mystery that is sure to keep the reader captivated.

Valentine Harris a great character filled with hopes and dreams, and a broken heart. Her life gets thrown into chaos after her fiancé tells her he doesn’t want to get married after all. Unfortunately, he waits to tell her this until after she has moved away from everything and everyone she knows and puts her life’s savings into opening Pie Town. Realizing that she still has feelings for Mark her ex-fiancé, she tries her best to move on and works night and day to make her shop successful. Val is like a lot of people who puts everything they have on the line and risks failure. The character is unmistakably relatable to anyone that has ever had a dream and risked everything to make that dream a reality.

Charlene is one of those eccentric characters that audiences love. She is mischievous, set in her ways, and downright strange. All of these qualities make her a fun and genuinely likable character that readers will want to hear more about. She may be old, but she has spunk and determination that rivals that of anyone half her age.

The remaining characters, especially Petronella Val’s employee, are well rounded and enjoyable. Readers will have mixed feelings about the victims but will ultimately cheer on Val and Charlene in their investigation and unmasking of the killer.

The Quiche and the Dead will leave readers craving pie of all types, and hungry for the next book in the series. The writing is smooth, fast-paced and filled with details that make you want to visit Pie Town. This book is highly recommended to readers of cozies that keep them on their toes and keeps them guessing until the very end.

[cyderry · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Val Harris has opened her new PIETOWN bakery at the same time as she prepares to get married. When the wedding is called off, Val throws everything into her bakery but she runs into a few problems - a hostile neighbor (her ex-fiancé's new girlfriend and a fitness nut) and a dead body in the shop.Feeling worried by the town's reaction to the death, she decides that she needs to find out what happened. The death is determined murder but not food poisoning, so figuring out who is responsible could be tricky.Nice start for a new series, some strange characters (maybe some a few too strange) food sounds yummy, and fun mystery.

[arthistorychick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Quiche and the Dead by Kirsten WeissBook #1: Pie Town Mystery SeriesSource: NetgalleyMy Rating: 4½/5 starsNothing has the potential to kill the prospects of a new restaurant like a customer keeling over at the counter while eating. Just six months into her restaurant’s run, one of Val Harris’s regulars does just that, he keels over while enjoying a slice of her hot-out-of-the-oven quiche. All the momentum Val had going went rolling right out the door with the medical examiner and dead body. If things don’t turn around quickly, Val stands to lose everything she has. With little else to do and very few customers, Val begins asking questions about her deceased customer. As it happens, he and his recently departed best friend liked to armchair sleuth with local unsolved mysteries and as Val continues to poke around, she discovers that one of those mysteries may have gotten both men killed. Make no mistake, Val isn’t in this alone and from the beginning she gets a load of (unwanted??) help from her crust maker, the eccentric and quite geriatric, Charlene. Charlene has lived in San Nicholas most of her life and knows the ins and outs better than anyone. For every question Val has, Charlene has either an insightful answer, a bit of backstory, or some preposterous scheme meant to unearth answers. To be sure, Charlene is a bit crazy, but she’s got good intentions, and finding out who killed her two friends will not only get a killer off the streets, but set Val’s restaurant (and Charlene’s employer!) to rights and get the customers coming back through the doors. With each new clue, Charlene and Val get closer to not only solving two murders, but several minor incidents as well. The Bottom Line: This is the second cozy mystery series by Kirsten Weiss I’ve dedicated time and energy to. Like the other series, I fell easily into the Pie Town Mystery series with it’s quirky characters, generally charming atmosphere and environment, and a twisty and turny plot worthy of each and every quirky character. Through late-night stakeouts, minor breaking and entering, some not-so-subtle questioning, and some seriously awkward encounters with her weasel ex, Val (and Charlene) get to the bottom of a mystery that is tanking Pie Town. With nothing but sheer will and determination to see her business succeed, Val stumbles and fumbles her way through the mess and, in the end, prevails and discovers just why armchair sleuthing was a hobby for the dead men.

[kris_anderson-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Quiche and the Dead by Kirsten Weiss is the first book in A Pie Town Mystery series. Valentine “Val” Harris opened Pie Town in San Nicholas, California five months prior. She is finally starting to break even and is happy with her choice to settle in San Nicholas. Val made a quiche to welcome Heidi Gladstone and her new business Heidi’s Health and Fitness to the neighborhood. Unfortunately, Heidi is against sugar (and anything with flavor along with Val’s slogan for her business) and shop regular Joe wins the quiche (he made a bet that Heidi would not eat it). Unfortunately, Joe soon clutches his stomach and keels over. Officer Gordon Carmichael responds to the 911 call along with Detective Shaw. It is determined the Joe was poisoned and business grinds to a halt at Pie Town. Charlene McCree, pie crust maker extraordinaire, believes she is a prime suspect and ropes Val into doing some snooping. They uncover that Joe liked to investigate local crimes along with his recently deceased friend, Frank Potts. What had Joe uncovered that got him killed? It seems that San Nicholas is not the sleepy little town it appears. The Quiche and the Dead starts off with a murder in the very first chapter. I liked the method of murder (poisoning) and the pie shop (it sounded cute). The main character, Valentine Harris was not appealing. I found her whiny and unlikeable (her overreaction to each and every encounter with Heidi became annoying). Charlene is supposed to be a secondary character, but she dominates the book. She is over-the-top, quirky and a conspiracy theorist. Charlene goes around town with a lazy cat around her shoulders like it is a fur stole (she states the cat is narcoleptic and would get lonely at home). It sounds humorous, but after numerous mentions of said cat it starts to become tedious and repetitive. The mystery was simple and the suspect list was limited. The killer’s identity can be distinguished early in the story (the person stands out—no clues needed). The story dragged along towards the end with much speculation and talking (along with more wackiness from Charlene). There is also flirting between Valentine and Officer Carmichael (Val is getting over a broken engagement). The author failed to adequately set up the backdrop of San Nicholas (we are given scant details). My rating for The Quiche and the Dead is 3 out of 5 stars (it was okay). The Quiche and the Dead did not inspire me to want more A Pie Town Mystery novels.