Leave It to Cleaver by Victoria Hamilton is the sixth book in the “Vintage Kitchen” mystery series. Publisher: Beyond the Page, June 23, 2017

In the brand-new Vintage Kitchen Mystery from the author of White Colander Crime, someone with an old grudge decides it’s time to bury the hatchet . . .

Vintage cookware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton has agreed to help her sister clear out the house of a deceased older neighbor, and she’s thrilled at the prospect of discovering antique kitchenware and other treasures—until she opens a vintage trunk in the cellar and finds the remains of a teenage girl with a cleaver buried in her skull. When the body of a second girl is found just days later in a nearby river, the clues all indicate that the crimes are connected—and that the culprit’s motives are hidden in the past.

Jaymie just wants to cut and run, but the victims were both high school classmates of her sister when they disappeared, and that makes Jaymie the perfect person to help the local police investigate the killings. As she dredges up old memories and even older rivalries and jealousies, her list of suspects grows. But Jaymie knows she’ll have to whittle it down to just one, and fast, because someone has decided to cut their ties to Jaymie—in the most fatal of ways . . .

Includes a vintage recipe!

I love this story where the past and present collided in the staging of this well-executed story. The mystery was tightly woven keeping me immersed in all that was happening from the discoveries of the bodies, to the recollection of the past and to the present where a killer lurks in plain sight. I like how this was set up with a slew of suspects and clues that had to be deciphered the more Jaymie dug deeper into the evidence that would eventually lead to the killer’s identity. The author had a way with the narrative bridging the gap between the decades and putting me in the middle of both time periods which felt rather comfortable not losing any steps in this storyline. Boasting a great cast of characters, engaging dialogue with a small-town atmosphere, this is the best book in this fabulous series and I can’t wait to see where we go next with Jaymie and her friends.

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FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.