DEATH BY DEEP DISH PIE is set in a small town in Ohio that goes by the name of Paradise.  However, lately the little town seems to be everything EXCEPT paradise!

Josie Toadfern's a twenty-three year old who runs Toadfern's Laundromat, and she is the best stain expert around.  She even writes an article for the local paper on how to remove stains.  This mystery begins when one of her regular customers, Ms. Beavy, comes in to have a stain removed from her favorite pink church blouse.  She tells Josie that the stain is blood, from a nose-bleed she had, but this doesn't look like any bloodstain Josie has ever seen before.

Now the scene is set, as "Nosy Josie" MUST find out the mystery behind the unidentified stain!  Little does she know that by uncovering the truth behind this one small red stain, she is going to be uncovering the whole truth to why Paradise seems to be so cursed! 

This is a hilarious and refreshing little mystery that had me outright laughing.  Josie truly is so tortured sometimes!  If it isn't the Toadfern's who don't really accept her or the ghost that haunts her sleeping hours, poor Josie just knows someone is lying to her.  Ms. Short does a wonderful job of making Josie a mystery-solving heroine who everyone can love.  Especially through the trials she has suffered since being a child...being an orphan taken in by her older aunt and uncle, taking care of her autistic older cousin Guy, loving a man who isn't exactly what he seems...  Josie Toadfern is the woman who, if you ran into her at Walmart and asked her about a stain, wouldn't hesitate to stop her shopping and try to help you out as much as she could! 

Sharon Short is a very talented and clever author who I feel is on to something wonderful.  I think it was great that she made Josie a stain expert instead of her being a food expert like I first thought because of the title.  While I love the occasional culinary mystery, so many authors seem to be jumping on that bandwagon.  Josie Toadfern may not be a culinary genius with her fried bologna sandwiches and Captain Crunch cereal, but she is certainly a tried and true Professor of Stainology!  This book is definitely a keeper for my bookshelves and I eagerly wait to see what shenanigans Josie gets into next!