A Delicious Deception

Mother-to-be Hayley Snow bites off more than she can chew in the sixteenth installment of Lucy Burdette’s USA Today bestselling Key West Food Critic mysteries.

When Sheriff’s Deputy Darcy Rogers asks Hayley for a small favor, she can’t say no. Nine months pregnant and temporarily benched from her food critic duties, Hayley’s itching for a distraction and eager to help. All she has to do is tag along while a young woman picks up her daughter from her father at Monroe County’s safe custody exchange location. Easy, right?

Wrong.

In the chaos of the Sheriff’s Office open house, the mother disappears. Then the father bolts, leaving Hayley with a terrified girl and the realization that something has gone terribly wrong. Hayley and Deputy Rogers head north up the Keys to search for answers. 

When a body turns up, Hayley realizes this isn’t just a missing-persons case—it’s a race against time. With the little girl’s safety at risk, Hayley must trust her instincts—and her heart—to uncover the truth.Clinical psychologist Lucy Burdette is the author of the USA Today bestselling Key West Food Critic mystery series. A Clue in the Crumbs won the gold medal for popular fiction from the Florida Book Awards in 2023. Both A Dish to Die For and The Key Lime Crime took home the bronze. Her books and stories have also been shortlisted for Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards. She’s a past president of Sisters in Crime and the Friends of the Key West Library.