The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "Denied" by Mary Keliikoa, Served with a Recipe for Peanut-Sesame Noodles

Happy Aloha Friday! I love a good mystery and so I am excited to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for Denied: A Kelly Pruett Mystery by Mary Keliikoa. It's the second in a new-ish series so I'll be talking about both books. Accompanying my review is a recipe for Penut-Sesame Noodles, inspired by my reading.

Publisher's Blurb:

A high-risk pregnancy. A dangerous secret. When her case turns deadly, can this investigator avoid racking up a fatal debt?

PI Kelly Pruett’s search to locate a former classmate’s missing father ends in what appears to be a tragic accident. But putting the pieces together that led to that fateful night will require Kelly to play a high risk game of chance with a killer willing to gamble everything to win.

Publisher: Camel Press (May 11, 2021)

Paperback: 226 pages

My Review: I always love a good mystery series and there is a lot to love about this one. As the book tour is for the second book in the series and I *can't* happily read series books out of order, I requested an arc of the first book, Derailed. I like that the books are set in my old stomping ground of Portland, Oregon, in fact Derailed had a Portland spin on a murder when a young woman was killed by a Max Light Rail Train. It sets up Kelly's situation, she is a Private Investigator who took over her father's business when he suffered a stroke and died. She has an 8-year-old daughter. Mitz, who is deaf and a basset hound named Floyd. She also has an ex-husband who cheated on her with her (former) best friend and an ex-mother-in-law who helps with Mitz and gets in Kelly's business a lot. There is a bit of a cozy mystery vibe here in that Kelly's father kept her on the light side of the business--process serving, skip tracing, stakeouts for photos of cheating spouses, and not on any of the grittier cases so she is often out of her element and takes some not-so-wise chances in both books. 

In Denied, an old school friend has been estranged from her father and asks Kelly to find him as she is pregnant and high risk. Kelly thinks he may have gotten involved over his head with a gambling racket and when it turns out he had an unfortunate car "accident," she is convinced there's more to the case. The books are quick reads, tension builds nicely, and there were some twists--some I saw coming, others were more of a surprise. I did have to yell at Kelly a few times in my head for her life choices and decisions, but overall, she is a character that I enjoyed. There's a new love interest for her plus some complications from her ex-husband to explore too. If you like mystery and PI series, a strong female main character, and Portland/Oregon settings, you should enjoy the Kelly Pruett Mysteries. I know I am looking forward to the next book. 

Book 1

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Author Notes: Mary Keliikoa is the author of the Lefty and Agatha award nominated PI Kelly Pruett mystery series and the upcoming Misty Pines mystery series featuring Sheriff Jax Turner slated for release in September 2022. Her short stories have appeared in Woman’s World and in the anthology Peace, Love and Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Music of the ‘60s. A Pacific NW native, she spent a part of her life working around lawyers. Combining her love of legal and books, she creates a twisting mystery where justice prevails. When not in Washington, you can find Mary on the beach in Hawaii where she and her husband recharge. But even under the palm trees and blazing sun, she’s plotting her next murder—novel that is.

Find out more about Mary on her website, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

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Food Inspiration:

Other than peanut butter, which is mentioned often, there is not a lot of food in Denied, but there were ribs and salad from the deli, black coffee, toast, cookies, wine, potato chips on a peanut butter sandwich, and spaghetti.

In both books, Kelly is constantly turning to peanut butter--often by the spoonful from the jar--as her comfort food and hunger satisfier. So for my bookish dish, I thought that with just a few more minutes, she could be enjoying her peanut butter with noodles for a more satisfying meal. 

I used Nigella's Sesame Peanut Noodle Sauce recipe for these. Adaptable and nothing fancy--add veggies if you like, but I thought Kelly would be mostly into a big bowl of noodles.

Sesame Peanut Noodle Sauce

Slightly Adapted from Nigella Lawson via FoodNetwork.com

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp garlic infused oil

1 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp sweet chili sauce

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter 

2 Tbsp lime juice

9 oz cooked noodles of choice (I used local fresh ramen)

cilantro, green onion or chives and sesame seeds to garnish

Whisk together all ingredients until smooth. Place cooked noodles in a large bowl and toss with dressing until completely covered. Let chill if desired and enjoy!

Notes/Results: Rich and almost creamy/buttery, when I make peanut butter noodles, I always wonder why I don't make them more often?! They are so easy and so good--especially with the fresh ramen noodles. I kept my noodles very basic but you can easily pump these up with all manner of veggies and add protein too. I just figure Kelly will do the least amount possible to get the peanut butter into her mouth. ;-) You can also up the spice level, although I like the balance of the milder heat in the sweet chili sauce. I will happily make these again. 

I'm sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event  being hosted by Marg at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader. It's a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. Here's a link to last week's post. 

Linking up this Nigella Recipe Adaptation to I Heart Cooking Clubs where the theme is Dress You Up!--sauces and dressings to jazz up your dishes. 

Note: A review copy of Denied was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.   
 
You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here.