Lilah Drake works for her parents in their real estate business. It has its perks. She lives in a small guesthouse on the grounds of a house her mother sold. But Lilah's real love is cooking. She really wants to start a catering business.

With that goal in mind, Lilah has started a small business, cooking for those who don't have the time or the skills, but still want to impress others. Lilah deliveries tend to be somewhat clandestine. She meets clients in out of the way places. Lilah is delivering some food one day to a client's house and meets a most attractive man who is highly suspicious of what she is doing in his mother's house. What a great start to the day.

Her business has been growing steadily when Alice Dixon dies from eating her chili at the church's potluck supper. Alice Dixon was not well-like but no could really want her dead. Her customer, Pet Grandy, is adamant that the secret of who made the chili cannot be exposed. She'd rather face the police than have the entire congregation know that Lilah made the chili.

When the police arrive, Lilah meets Detective Parker, the man who ran her out of his mother's house and the chief investigator into Alice Dixon's death. With Pet Grandy insisting that she made the chili, Lilah feels she has no option to tell the truth. Lilah is determined to identify the killer to protect her growing business.

Little does Lilah realize that she will be putting herself and her relationship with Jay Parker in harm's way. Even while she shares all she learns with Jay about the death of Alice, the fact that she is hiding one piece of information bothers her greatly.

Ms. Buckley has written a great start in THE BIG CHILI. It's to be the start of a new series. Not only are the characters so likable that you feel like you know them as people, but the story was so good that identifying the killer turned out to be more complicated than the reader might expect. Cozy fans will be delighted at one of the latest series to come our way.