After years of heartbreak and self-doubt, Mia Carina is finally enjoying a romance with a handsome, intelligent, caring guy who adores her. So what if they work together? She and Shane Gambrazzo are doing their best to stay professional and keep their romance on the down low—to the ongoing amusement of their far-from-oblivious coworkers.

It does help that business is booming at the Belle View Banquet Manor that employs them. One of their latest bookings, however, gives Mia pause. Famous producer Giles St. James wants to hold a three-day casting call on the premises. A three-day reservation is good money, but Mia has spent far too much time growing up with real mobsters to appreciate Giles’s latest project: a reality show featuring broad caricatures of Mafia wannabes.

Mia soon has good reason to keep a closer eye on the proceedings when her newest employee decides to join the cast. Donny Boldano Jr. is actual Mafia royalty, being the namesake son of the local mob boss who also happens to be Mia’s godfather. Now that Donny Jr. is in his mid-30s, the entire Boldano clan—including Donny Jr. himself—has accepted that he simply doesn’t have the stomach for The Life. In an effort to help him figure out what he wants to do next, Mia hires him. After all, the banquet manor is one of the Boldano family’s legitimate businesses.

Unfortunately, Donny Jr. seems far less enamored of event coordination than of the glitz of reality TV. More specifically, he’s developed a strong attraction to Giles’s ex-wife Ariadne, who’s also one of the new show’s executive producers. It’s pretty clear to everyone who cares about Donny Jr. that Ariadne is just using him, but he refuses to brook any criticism of his new lady love.

Things go from bad to worse when Giles is found bludgeoned to death. When Donny Jr. becomes the prime suspect in Giles’s murder, Don Sr. begs Mia to help prove he didn’t do it. Junior essentially washed out of a life of crime because he doesn’t have an appetite for violence. Surely not even his taste of Hollywood can have finally changed this about him.

This was another effortlessly charming and hilarious Catering Hall Mystery, as Mia has to figure out which of the producer’s many enemies hated him enough to actually kill him. It’s so much fun to follow along as Mia uncovers more than one crime and one criminal even before she learns about the big secret Shane is keeping from her. The cast of characters is large and endearing but surprisingly easy to keep track of given each character’s vivid personality.

Four Parties and a Funeral includes event tips as well as five recipes for dishes mentioned in the book. I chose the Italian-adjacent one, which shows up in one of the funniest scenes in the novel.

Tuna Casserole

Ingredients

2 cans (10 ¾ oz.) cream of mushroom soup (I go for reduced fat whenever possible)

2 cans all-white tuna fish, drained

2 cups milk (chef’s choice; I use skim)

1 cup finely diced onions or shallots

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup cooked peas

I cup cooked chopped mushrooms (I like to roast mine for extra flavor)

2 cups cooked farfalle pasta

2-3 cups crushed potato chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix the soup, tuna, and milk in a large bowl. Add the onions, peas, and mushrooms. Stir in the cheese, and mix well to incorporate all the ingredients. Add the pasta, and gently stir to combine.

Pour into a 12” x 17” baking dish. Sprinkle all over with the crushed potato chips and bake for 20 minutes. Check the center to make sure the casserole is thoroughly cooked.*

Serves 16.

*If you’ve halved the ingredients, use a 9” x 12” baking dish, and bake for 15 minutes. Check the center to make sure the casserole is thoroughly cooked.

I absolutely halved this recipe to make at home and felt zero shame about substituting ingredients in my pantry that I wanted to use up while making it. Throw in whatever pasta you like, and don’t feel bad about using canned or store-prepared ingredients. Pro-tip to reduce the amount of cleaning you’ll need to do after: go ahead and mix up all the ingredients in the dish you’re planning on baking them in instead of using a separate prep bowl.

As Mia discovers in the novel, this is a delicious and satisfying dish for Italians or otherwise. It’s also a shockingly good way to stretch out a single can of tuna to feed eight people. My family loved it.

Next week, we travel to the West Coast to bake some delicious cookies while investigating the death of an artist. Do join me!

See also: Cooking the Books: Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust by Mindy Quigley