A Maine Diner Mystery Series Box Set Books 1-5

By: Kelli Fudge

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Five meals. Five murders. One unforgettable small-town sleuth.

Welcome to Seaview, Maine—where the coffee is always hot, the gossip travels fast, and if you’re not careful…you might just end up on the menu.

In this delightful and delicious cozy mystery collection, retired librarian Hazel Parker never planned to become the town’s go-to sleuth. But when murder keeps showing up at The Lighthouse Diner, Hazel, along with sharp-tongued waitress Millie Brewster and gruff-but-lovable owner Gus Bailey, must uncover secrets simmering beneath the surface of their charming coastal town.

From food critics to lumberjacks, councilmen to carefully staged crimes, every case is packed with small-town drama, clever clues, and a generous helping of humor and heart.

This box set includes Books 1–5 in the A Maine Diner Mystery series:

• Meatloaf Murder Special
• Chicken Fried Corpse
• Flapjacks & Dead Lumberjacks
• Pot Roast Revenge
• Steak and Eggs Stickup

Perfect for fans of culinary cozies and amateur sleuths, this binge-worthy collection serves up five full-length mysteries filled with comfort food, quirky characters, and twisty whodunits that will keep you turning pages late into the night.

Pull up a chair, order something delicious… and try not to die laughing.

Redundant

The first 4 books were too similar, murder at the same location. Even in 2026, no small Maine coastal town has that much violent crime in a year. The main character Hazel had potential, but never really developed. Only a few supporting characters were identified, none with any depth or a quirky personality. Disappointing to a Maine native who loves my home state.

AI reader is torture!

These are typical formula cozy mysteries, although not as well written as others. They would be fine for passing time with a simple read/listen except that the AI reader is torturous…..😣 There is some inflection in the AI voice but many mispronunciations, no voice differentiation for different characters and often the wrong words are emphasized in a sentence. I found myself listening more for the errors than to the story itself. The only reason I’m not completely disappointed is because it was a free download.

Why does the main character completely change in book 4?

Were these written by AI in addition to being read by it? In books 1-3 the main character, Hazel, is a 62 year old retired librarian widow who’s just moved to town. She frequents the local diner and befriends the owner, cook, and waitress. Suddenly in books 4 she’s young, has lived in the town her whole life and is a waitress at the diner. The cook, who’s an integral character in the prior books, just completely disappears from the story. I was also annoyed that the virtual narrator keeps throwing the name Earl in place of actual character names for no reason. Also, why are there 2 sheriffs in town with the same name? One’s an older man and one’s a younger woman. I kind of picture them as father and daughter though no relationship is ever mentioned between them. But even sharing a last name they wouldn’t both be sheriffs. There’s only ever one sheriff and everyone else is a deputy or some other position. “Sheriff Davis told Sheriff Davis to…” was so annoying to listen to.

Same Names?

The sheriff and the deputy have the same names, which can be confusing. It wouldn’t be so bad if they called one the sheriff and one the deputy.

Lack of continuity

The story started out interesting, a retired woman moving to a small coastal town, but in the end it turned into she had grown up in that town lived there forever. Millie starts out being a waitress in the diner and my book 4 she’s a customer who spends all her time gossiping who has nothing to do with China.
Eric is a chef but in book 3 he keeps being called Earl. It just seems like every single murder happens in the diner the same way always poisoning by plant-based poison. I got to book 4 before I finally had had enough.