Robbie is remodeling the upstairs of her shop to make guest rooms while down in the restaurant she is dealing with meetings of Indiana University's Sociology Department of which her friend Lou is a member. One of these meetings get quite heated and the next day when Robbie and Lou go out walking, they find the body of one of the Sociology Department under the ice of the local lake. Now the question is how does Robbie keep the cops from charging Lou with the crime?

I enjoyed this story. I like that Robbie is getting more involved with the community. I also like her ability to find the murder victim then go on to make sure justice is served. She is persistent in making sure that the sheriff's department knows what she finds out even if it gets her in trouble (both with the sheriff and the murderer.) I enjoyed learning more about the history of Robbie's building/home. It is interesting to find out the how and why of architectural designs. I love the secondary characters and learning more about them.

I have to admit it took me a while to figure out the murderer. I hope I do better with the rest of the series. ( )

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. ( )

Easy read, will read more ( )

When the Grits Hit the Fan is the third book in the Country Store Mystery series. Robbie Jordan is still renovating the old country store building she purchased in South Lick, Indiana. Her restaurant, Pan N' Pancakes is on the main floor. She is tearing out plaster in the upstairs portion of the building in preparation to add some bed and breakfast style rooms. The restaurant business has slowed down a bit now that winter weather has arrived. While snowshoeing with her friend, Lou, they come upon the body of a local professor frozen under the ice. Unfortunately Lou just argued with the man over his stealing and publishing her research as his own. The local police immediately zero in on Lou as a suspect. Add in secret tunnels, small town secrets and hidden crimes and it makes for a completely engrossing cozy mystery!!

I haven't read any of the other books in this series but was able to enjoy the story and figure out the characters. So, it isn't absolutely necessary to read the books in order. I am going to go back and read the first two books after totally enjoying this one!

I like Robbie Jordan as a main character. She is intelligent, capable and does DIY like a pro! She flips pancakes at her restaurant, investigates murders and wields a pry bar to tear out plaster....and still has time for dinner and extracurricular activities with her love-interest, Abe O'Neill. I like the subplot about her renovating the old store, trying to keep it authentic looking and planning to add a B&B upstairs. The mystery is engaging. There are plenty of suspects and surprises. There were some portions I had figured out, but the very end was a surprise. Loved it!

I will definitely be reading more of this series! Very entertaining! (And made me hungry for pancakes!) When the Grits Hit the Fan will be published March 28th!

Maddie Day is a pseudonym for the author Edith Maxwell. For more information about the author and her other books check out her website at https://edithmaxwell.com/

**I voluntarily read an Advance Readers Copy of this book from Kensington via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.** ( )

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. ( )