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    When the Grits Hit the Fan
    When the Grits Hit the Fan
    When the Grits Hit the Fan
    Audiobook8 hours

    When the Grits Hit the Fan

    Written by Maddie Day

    Narrated by Laural Merlington

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Before she started hosting dinners for Indiana University's Sociology Department at Pans 'N' Pancakes, Robbie never imagined scholarly meetings could be so hostile. It's all due to Professor Charles Stilton, who seems to thrive on heated exchanges with his peers and underlings, and tensions flare one night after he disrespects Robbie's friend, graduate student Lou. So when Robbie and Lou go snowshoeing the next morning and find the contentious academic frozen under ice, police suspect that Lou might have killed him after their public tiff. To prove her friend's innocence, Robbie is absorbing local gossip about Professor Stilton's past and developing her own thesis on the homicide-even if that means stirring up terrible danger for herself along the way . . .
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 28, 2017
    ISBN9781515984870
    Author

    Maddie Day

    Agatha and Macavity finalist author Maddie Day is a talented amateur chef who knows both Indiana and Cape Cod intimately. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and blogs with the Wicked Authors and at Killer Characters. Day lives with her beau north of Boston, where she gardens, cooks, and devises new murderous plots. She hopes you’ll find her at maddiedayauthor.com.

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    Reviews for When the Grits Hit the Fan

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    68 ratings10 reviews

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    • 4/5
      While on a snow-shoe walk, Robbie Jordan and her friend Lou Perlman come across the frozen body of Professor Charles Stilton. Stilton and other members of Indiana University’s sociology department, professors and grad students, had their twice-monthly dinner at Robbie’s café, Pans ‘n’ Pancakes, the previous evening. Turns out the professor was murdered and the suspect list is long. He was pretty much hated by his wife, son, mother-in-law, colleagues, department head and students. But police glom onto Lou as a suspect. Robbie is certain her friend didn’t kill anyone.Robbie doesn’t have much time to work on another murder case. In addition to running her restaurant/retail shop, Robbie, who’s a licensed carpenter, is doing demo work on the second story of her building – taking the walls down. While she’s doing that, she makes some astonishing finds – most of which go back to the earlier building owners – Stilton’s mother-in-law and wife. Plus Robbie is in the early stages of a romance with hunky Abe O’Neill – an electrician. The “Country Store Mysteries” are lighthearted fun and Robbie is a great heroine. This is the third in the series and I’ve enjoyed them all.
    • 4/5
      Robbie seems to be a magnet for dead bodies. This time, she finds one under the ice in a lake. When her friend is suspected in the murder, Robbie again wants to find the real murderer to save her friend from being arrested. The victim was not exactly well liked, and that leads her to more than one suspect. Robbie goes after after local gossip in the hopes of finding something that the police missed. It’s an entertaining mystery peopled with equally entertaining characters.
    • 4/5
      Robbie Jordan owns Pans 'N Pancakes, a restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch in a small town in Indiana. There's a group of university people who are holding a meeting there, and she can't help but hear snippets of conversation. Some are downright hostile -- and they're coming from Professor Charles Stilton, who's goading people. She hears him get into an altercation with her friend Lou Perlman, wherein Lou accuses him of stealing her research. Then later, she only manages to catch the tail end of an argument with the chair, Zenobia (Zen) Brown. All she knows is that she's grateful she doesn't have to deal with him.The next day, while she and Lou are snowshoeing, they go across the ice and Robbie sees something under it -- which turns out to be the frozen body of the professor. After calling the police and being questioned, she discovers that her friend is one of the suspects. To make things more complicated, she's renovating her upstairs so that she can open a bed and breakfast in the future. She finds small items in the walls, and mentions it to the previous owner who tells her she would like to see them. But she also finds something else -- something she was never supposed to find, and it makes her curious why it was there and who used it. Now, she has two mysteries to solve: who killed the professor, and who wants her out of the investigation...permanently?I read the first two in this series and I enjoyed them, so (quite a bit later) decided to go back and read the others. This is the third in the series, and I will say that I enjoyed it as much as the first two. Robbie is an interesting character: she's the owner of a restaurant and a cook, and is also capable of renovating a building. She's also a whiz at crossword puzzles, and right now the puzzle she has in front of her has her wondering. So far, she's narrowed it down to four suspects, but which one of them are guilty? While she's not going around interrogating people, she does ask questions, and it definitely is making the murderer nervous. There are small clues, but they're not obvious, and this is a mystery that makes you think while you're searching for a killer along with Robbie. When the ending comes and the murderer is revealed, it's a bit of a different climax, and one that I enjoyed reading. That said, I will continue on with this series. Recommended.
    • 5/5
      When the Grits Hit the Fan is the third book in the Country Store Mystery series and is the best so far. Robbie Jordan is renovating the upstairs of Pan N' Pancakes in South Lick Indiana. She talks to the old owner and her daughter about finding artifacts in the walls that she is tearing out to add some rooms as a Bed and Breakfast. They would love to see what she has found. Meanwhile business has slowed down a bit so she has closed for a couple of days a week to do the work. Her friend Lou, has set up a dinner for the Sociology department from the University every other Friday. It is at one of these dinners that a couple of arguments break out. The next day, Lou and Robbie are out snowshoeing. Taking a shortcut across the lake, they find the dead body of the professor that was involved in the arguments the previous evening. He is frozen under a light crust of ice in a large fishing hole. Because Lou was on of the people he argued with the night before, and she was one of the people to find the body, she is the number one suspect. Of course, Robbie wants to prove her innocence and begins to investigate on her own. The side story going on is that Robbie finds a hidden ladder and secret tunnels under her property and thinks someone has been using them. Things heat up with accusations, threats, questions and an eventual showdown. This was a great mystery.

      Robbie Jordan is a great protagonist. She is smart, capable, loyal and knows her way around tools. She sure knows how to manage time as she cooks and serves at her restaurant, investigates the murder and the tunnels as well as wielding a pry bar to tear out plaster. With all this going on, she still has time for dinner and extracurricular activities with her boyfriend, Abe O'Neill. The murder mystery was pretty easy for me to solve, but there were still a lot of suspects, red herrings and some surprises in store. The mystery of the tunnels and secret passage was a different thing altogether, I had no idea who had been in the store and why. I read this book in one day as I wanted to see if I was right about the killer. I enjoyed this book and will definitely keep reading Country Store Mysteries.
    • 5/5
      When the Grits Hit the Fan: A Country Store Mystery
      Cozy Mystery
      Maddie Day

      After buying and opening a small town restaurant and soon to be B & B, Robbie started hosting dinners for Indiana University’s Sociology Department at Pans ‘N Pancakes to keep the store going through the slow winter months. The hostility between the members could be seen and heard, and she wondered if any of them were as smart as she had always thought they were. Professor Charles Stilton, a man who apparently no one liked or wanted to work with was at the center of the tension at the latest meeting. The Professor insults Robbie’s friend, graduate student Lou and the chair of his department, Zen ending the night with grumbling and dread.

      The next morning Robbie and Lou go snowshoeing and find the Professor frozen under the ice. Before long the police suspect Lou might have killed him after she accused him of stealing her work. To prove her friend’s innocence, Robbie does what she does best, begins to solve the mystery of the Professor's murder and puts herself smack in the middle of danger, again.
      --
      Robbie Jordan is a delightful character, as are all of the recurring characters in this series. The story although a murder mystery is more than a who done it. Maddie Day fills the pages of her book with several intriguing puzzles. Setting Robbie up for making several discoveries and perplexing mysteries.

      Robbie and Lou are by far the most rounded characters in the story, but Jo and Danna are becoming an intricate part of the series and serve to give the reader more than a couple of suspects to point the finger at. Robbie’s desire to make her store succeed even in the dismal dead of winter is inspiring. Her newest love interest is a man who apparently thinks everything Robbie does is perfect, he is respectful, loving and compassionate at all the right moments, and protective when needed. The only complaint there may be is that his background could be better explained, but overall, he is an excellent addition to Robbie’s life.

      There are numerous suspects and not even the police can figure out who killed the Professor. Other than the fact that he was not liked by most people, no one, in particular, seems to have a motive for killing him. In the end, the murderer is revealed in an unexpected and heart-stopping way.
      The setting, the small town of South Lick, and the plot of this story are delightful and does not disappoint. The reader may well find themselves envisioning the store and its quirky customers sitting down to a homestyle, upscale breakfast, and a bit of gossip. The book is fast-paced without sacrificing detail and those all important clues needed to solve the murder.

      This series is highly recommended, if you like twists, turns and a well-crafted story with memorable characters you will love this book.



    • 5/5
      It was nice to be back in touch with the folks of South Lick, Indiana. And let me just say that When the Grits Hit The Fan, the third instalment in the Country Store Mystery series, is one of the best cozies I've ever read to date! I mean, seriously, I couldn't wait to pick up where I'd left off each and every time! I got not just a few, but ALL of the elements that I appreciate in a good mystery; suspense, a great setting, intriguing and quirky characters, a learning experience, a little bit of romance and a climactic, edge of your seat ending. There's no fluff in this story. It's a solid mystery with characters that are so distinctly original and amusing it's hard to believe they're fictitious. My favorites are the police officers, both men and women, who are investigating the crime. One in particular, Octavia Slade, has a no-nonsense quality that I never tired of. Lieutenant Buck Bird, the tall, lanky officer with the hearty appetite and thick Indiana accent was another favorite. And Danna, the teenaged restaurant assistant with the dreadlocks, piercings, and sassy personality snagged my complete attention each time she was mentioned. I liked the diverse backgrounds and ages, along with the appropriate dialects and jargon. It's clear that the characters were well thought out and carefully constructed, and for that reason they are not easily forgotten. And now, what it's about....Robbie Jordan, proprietor of country store and restaurant, Pans 'N Pancakes, is grateful for the increased business she receives from hosting the Indiana University group of Sociology grad students and professors that meet there on a bimonthly basis. The conversation is typically peaceful, but during one Friday session graduate student and friend, Louise "Lou" Perlman, and Lou's professor, Charles Stilton, are engaged in a quarrel. Lou has accused him of stealing the material from her research project and presenting it as his own. He smugly dismisses her accusation and regards her as inconsequential as compared to his superior rank. Furious, she removes herself from the table and storms off to the restroom to blow off steam. Charles Stilton doesn't seem the least bit affected by the incident and resumes his conversation with the others. But before long he insults the chair of the department, Zenobia Brown, and shortly thereafter the group disbands for the evening. The next day while Robbie and Lou are snowshoeing, Robbie discovers Charles Stilton's body through a hole in the frozen lake, and before long many of Robbie's acquaintances, including her good friend Lou, are on the suspect list. Further investigation reveals that almost no one cared for the arrogant man, including his mistreated wife, their son, and his mother-in-law. So who's the culprit? Robbie might not know who murdered Charles Stilton, but she's sure it wasn't her friend Lou, and she's determined to use her sleuthing skills to have her friend exonerated. The depth of the storyline surpassed my expectations. I never felt bored, and I was impressed with how the lead character subtly transitioned into amateur sleuth in a way that was believable. I didn't have to suspend disbelief to accept the role she played in going about finding clues to solve the murder. This is a cozy mystery series you won't want to miss. Very, very highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      This is a fun series and may be my favorite one so far. Robbie Jordan has finally settled into the community of South Lick, Indiana, and her restaurant, the Pans N' Pancakes, going strong. One way she has tried to add to the bottom line, is opening up part of her café for committee/group meetings from nearby Indiana University. When she and her friend Lou discover a body while out snowshoeing, the memory of one of those more raucous meetings comes to mind. Robbie is also continuing to renovate the building housing her restaurant, hoping to someday open up rooms similar to a B and B. There is a fascinating backstory with the history of her buildings that plays into the modern day mystery, which I found very appealing.
    • 5/5
      This was a really fun book to read. I loved reading about the restaurant, Pans N' Pancakes. It is a wonderful place for people to eat scrumptious food and visit with friends. The author does a great job of describing menu items and boy did I get hungry as I was reading. I could smell the biscuits and gravy and the fragrance of bacon as they were cooked to perfection. The town called South Lick, Indiana sounds like a perfect vacation spot. Robbie is the owner of Pots N' Pans and really keeps herself busy with orders and visiting with the customers. I really liked her and loved how everyone seemed so at ease at her restaurant. When a group of graduate students and professors from the Sociology Department from the University meet at Robbie's place, business is brisk and everyone seems to be enjoying theirselves. Things are going well until a heated conversation breaks out between Professor Charles Stilton and someone at the table . Who was Charles arguing with ? The next day Robbie and her friend Lou decide to put on snowshoes and take a brisk walk . As they near Crooked Lake, Robbie becomes curious about an ice fishing hole When she looks down into the hole , someone is looking back at her. I would have screamed so loud, I probably would have cracked the ice at the sight of bulging eyes looking at me. I was not surprised at who was stuck under the ice, but it was still interesting to find out how many enemies the person had. I started to wonder if he was liked by anyone. The list of suspects start to fill a page and Robbie is determined to find out who the killer is. How did the person die? Who hated the person so much, they were willing to commit murder? The author keeps the story moving at a good pace with quite a few surprises. There is another intriguing mystery going on with Robbie's place above the restaurant. She is renovating it and finds some very unusual items . Someone is not happy with the renovations and tries to stop Robbie . The book is well written and had me so involved in the book I couldn't put it down. There are several characters you will meet as you read the story that are hiding secrets. Can Robbie keep herself safe? Will the killer be caught? Don't miss this exciting story that will keep you guessing and has a great and action packed ending. I received a copy of this book from The Great Escape Book Tours. The review is my own opinion.
    • 3/5
      When the Grits Hit the Fan by Maddie Day is the third A Country Store Mystery series. Robbie Jordan owns the Pans ‘N Pancakes in South Lick, Indiana. The restaurant is full of graduate students and professors from Indiana University’s Sociology Department. Robbie’s friend, Lou Perlman is having a heated conversation with Professor Charles Stilton. Professor Stilton had been Lou’s advisor for her research paper, but he recently had his own paper accepted for publication on the same topic. He claims that it was parallel research, but Lou states he stole her material. New department head, Dr. Zenobia “Zen” Brown manages to settle the group, before it breaks up for the night. The next day Lou and Robbie decide to get some exercise and head out on snowshoes for a walk in the woods. They end up at Crooked Lake, and Robbie notices an ice fishing hole. Robbie has not seen one previously and peers in to check out the fish. Instead of fish swimming under the ice, Robbie finds Dr. Stilton swimming with the fishes (I couldn’t resist). It turns out that Dr. Stilton had a habit of angering others which makes for a long suspect list. Unfortunately, Lou is at the top of that list. While business is slow (because of the winter weather), Robbie is working on remodeling the second floor of her building. She wants to turn it into a bed and breakfast. She has been finding a variety of objects inside the walls including newspapers and vintage shoes. Robbie must put her remodeling plans on hold when Lou is bumped up to prime suspect. Robbie starts delving into Charles Stilton’s life and history to find out who made him fish bait. One person is not happy with Robbie’s meddling and sets out to stop her from discovering the truth.When the Grits Hit the Fan is an entertaining cozy mystery. I found the book to be nicely written, easy to read, and it has a good flow. I enjoyed the characters and the setting. I like in the descriptions of the old kitchenware items that Robbie has on display in the restaurant (I love antiques and vintage items). When the Grits Hit the Fan is the third book in A Country Store Mystery series, but it can easily be read alone. The author provides background details on Robbie and her business. I give When the Grits Hit the Fan 3.5 out of 5 stars. There are two mysteries in the book, and I appreciated how the author tied them together. I just wish the solution to both crimes had not been so simple. I was hoping there would be a nice surprise twist at the end that would leave me by flummoxed. I did find that some information was repeated a few times over the course of the novel. This cozy mystery is a little more cozy than mystery. It is nice, though, to revisit South Lick, Indiana and get updates on the citizens that populate this quaint town. There are recipes at the end of the book. The next book in A Country Store Mystery series is Biscuits and Slashed Browns!
    • 5/5
      This book was a lot of fun. Robbie owns (and runs) Pans 'N Pancakes, a small town Indiana diner that specializes in breakfast and good home cooking. She has a lot of regular customers and hosts a variety of different groups, including the university's sociology meetings. After a heated meeting, one of the members of the group ends up dead, and Robbie's diner is host to a whole lot of suspects. Was it someone in the sociology group who'd had enough? Was it a family member, or someone from his past? And things get even more interesting when Robbie decides to renovate her diner and discovers secrets in the walls. There are plenty of colorful characters, good food, and lots of secrets and suspects. I was wrong more than once about who the killer was but it all tied together nicely at the end. I haven't read the first two books in the series yet, but I definitely will. *I received this book at no cost in exchange for an honest review.