series featuring food critic Hayley Snow. The Key Lime CrimeE, tenth in her Key West food critic mystery series, won the Florida Book Award's bronze medal for popular fiction. Burdette’s first thriller, Unsafe Haven, was published last year. Her books and stories have been short-listed for Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards. She's a past president of Sisters in Crime, and currently serving as president of the Friends of the Key West Library.
Burdette applied the Page 69 Test to A Dish to Die for and reported the following:
From page 69:Visit Lucy Burdette's website, Twitter perch, and Facebook page.That reminded me that twice over the past few years, Miss Gloria’s houseboat had been ransacked. Nathan had been pleading with both of us to improve the security around our homes, but we hated feeling like we lived in a gated community—or a prison. Maybe it was time to take his advice—after all, Key West had grown a lot more crowded, busier than this little road could ever be. I pulled the big Buick over to the side of the road and turned to my friend. “I know there’s no point in asking you to stay in the car. But please let me ask the questions?” She winked.I never know what I might find looking back at page 69! In this snippet, food critic Hayley Snow returns to the area around the scene of a crime—a deserted beach north of Key West—with her neighbor on Houseboat Row, Miss Gloria. (Hayley and her husband’s dog were the ones who discovered the body a day earlier.) Both women know that Hayley’s detective husband would not approve of them interviewing suspects or otherwise putting themselves in danger. But they’ve gone up the Keys to meet someone who might have information about the murder, and the temptation to revisit the area around the beach and ask questions is too intense.
The two dogs who’d been lazing in the dirt, scrambled to their paws and began to bark with excitement as soon as I opened my door. A blue-striped awning extended from the front of the mobile home, lending a bit of shade to the two men and one woman who sat smoking in aluminum chairs. To the right of the drive was a boat trailer holding two kayaks, one yellow, one orange. A Jolly Roger pirate flag was planted at the edge of the driveway, along with a No Trespassing sign. Not altogether welcoming. If one of the dogs lunged at us, we’d hightail it back to the car. Looking both ways, I approached the end of the driveway, stopping as the dark shepherd-looking dog let out a menacing growl. I grinned and called out to the people.
“Hello! I’m Hayley and this is my friend Gloria.” I put my arm around her shoulders. “Sorry to interrupt your happy hour. I was hoping to ask you a few questions. I was on the beach the other day when the body was found.”
Miss Gloria interrupted. “She was not only there, she actually found the poor man. We wondered if you’d heard anything about whodunnit?”
Eighty-something Miss Gloria is one of my favorite characters to write, and she gets more fan mail than any of the other characters as well. I was pleased to see some of the liveliness of her personality jump off the page. The next book in the series (still unnamed but coming in August 2023) will feature Miss Gloria and two older Scottish women in an even bigger way. I find it fascinating that while the publishing industry looks for young protagonists in their 20s and 30s, readers adore scrappy older characters with a sense of humor and a lot of wisdom.
The Page 69 Test: An Appetite For Murder.
Writers Read: Lucy Burdette (January 2012).
The Page 69 Test: Death in Four Courses.
The Page 69 Test: A Scone of Contention.
My Book, The Movie: Unsafe Haven.
--Marshal Zeringue
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