Another cozy return to Balsam Dell with high stakes for Carly and Ari, but a mystery that was easier to solve than some of the earlier installments.

Goodreads | Between a Roquefort and a Hard Place

Release date: April 21, 2026

Publisher: Beyond the Page

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Synopsis:

Restaurant owner Carly Hale Mitchell has to get her husband off the hook when he’s implicated in the suspicious death of a crooked coworker . . .

When the elderly owner of a historic mansion asks Carly to come visit and make one of her famous grilled cheese sandwiches, Carly can hardly say no. She loves spending time inside the fabled home, and she knows her husband will be at the grand old manse too, rewiring the electrical as part of larger renovations. But sparks fly when he gets into a shoving match with the contractor overseeing the project, and that puts him at the top of the suspect list when the contractor later falls to his death from the roof amid signs of foul play.

Desperate to clear her husband’s good name, Carly puts her restaurant work on the back burner while she tries to track down the real culprit. Thinking it must be someone on the renovation crew or an employee at the mansion, she begins grilling the suspects, only to learn that the victim had enemies throughout the community. Then another dead body is discovered at the mansion, and Carly has to approach the case from a whole new angle—just as the killer is angling to make her the next victim on their list . . .

Review:

Seven books in, I am officially attached to Balsam Dell and its residents, so naturally I was invested in this mystery from the start. This time the stakes were about as high as they could get for Carly with Ari himself becoming a suspect. I always enjoy when the personal connections raise the stakes in a cozy, and having Carly work to clear her husband’s name gave the investigation plenty of emotional weight.

I did miss the Grilled Cheese Eatery, though. Carly spends quite a bit of time away from the restaurant in this installment, and while I understand that the mysteries need to take her outside of the eatery to keep things fresh, the restaurant and the community surrounding it are such a big part of what makes this series work for me. I wanted more time there and more of those familiar cozy moments between investigations.

The mystery itself was probably my least favorite of the series from a whodunnit perspective because I found the culprit fairly easy to figure out. There were some interesting layers to uncover, but I didn’t get the same sense of surprise I experienced with some of the earlier books. For me, the characters and setting were once again the bigger draw.

And that’s really where I landed with this one. I still love Carly, Ari, the Balsam Dell community, and the overall world Linda Reilly has created. After reading all seven books back to back, these characters genuinely feel familiar, and that’s what kept me turning the pages even when the mystery didn’t completely surprise me.

Also…this did not feel like the end of the series to me. 😂 There are definitely story threads and relationships that feel like they could continue, and I’m very much hoping this isn’t our last visit to Balsam Dell. Overall, Between a Roquefort and a Hard Place was a solid but not standout installment for me. It wasn’t my favorite mystery of the series, but after seven books, I’m far too attached to this little Vermont town to say goodbye just yet.

Perfect for Readers Who Love

• Culinary cozy mysteries
• Small town Vermont settings
• Established romances
• High personal stakes
• Amateur sleuths protecting the people they love
• Long running cozy series with familiar characters

Overall rating: 3/5

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