Category Archives: Reviews

“One character Gottlieb really captured was Sylvie, Huff’s widow, who is loud, demanding, free to point the finger of guilt, and has dementia. I can still hear her yelling to Alene as she visited her father in the hospital.”

Gottlieb sets the stage beautifully for readers and with providing the list of characters in the beginning, you have your own little cheat sheet of sorts. And with all the twists and turns in Smothered you will be grateful to have the list so that you can keep track of everyone and check off those you believe are innocent. However when the real killer is revealed I’m sure you will be as shocked as I was because I’m certain they weren’t even on your radar.

This wouldn’t be a culinary cozy if we didn’t get recipes. Since Alene’s café is vegan the recipes are slightly different than you might see in a normal culinary cozy, but the food in this book still sounds mouthwatering.

Alene is back with her vegetarian/vegan cafe and coffeehouse, a cast of intriguing characters, and a mystery that you may or may not be able to solve before all is revealed.

G. P. Gottlieb’s first culinary mystery, Battered, won fans for both its Chicago neighborhood setting and its punchy, relentless amateur sleuth, Alene Baron.

A delicious-sounding café sporting the name ‘Whipped and Sipped’ doesn’t sound like its owner would be into solving a murder, but its neighboring gym owner is highly disliked in town, and his murder somehow comes as no surprise in Smothered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery.

G. P. Gottlieb’s first culinary mystery, Battered, won fans for both its Chicago neighborhood setting and its punchy, relentless amateur sleuth, Alene Baron.

It’s always fun to find an author with her own twist on the genres I love.  In this case, I’m talking specifically about Battered, the first Whipped and Sipped mystery from G. P. Gottlieb.  It’s a culinary cozy, but the main character runs a shop that serves healthy treats.

Not many people can say that they are doing what they love….but Alene Baron can say exactly that. Alene is the main character in Battered : A Whipped and Sipped Mystery by G.P. Gottlieb. She grew up working in Whipped and Sipped, a cafe owned by a dear friend of the family Gary. And when Gary was ready to retire he sold it to Alene for a very good price. Now she runs it with her best friend from college Ruthie.