A Nation Best Served Hot

David Carl Mielke
Mill City Press, Inc. (2010)
ISBN 9781936107988
Reviewed by Tyler R. Tichelaar for Reader Views (07/10)


“A Nation Best Served Hot” is the imaginative, occasionally gruesome, but all-around delightfully comical sequel to David Carl Mielke’s earlier novel “A Dish Best Served Cold.” While I enjoyed his first book, I could not put this sequel down. Even if readers have not read the first book, they will thoroughly enjoy “A Nation Best Served Hot,” and the book does a good job of clarifying anything readers need to know about the characters from the first book, while this novel really has a completely new storyline, especially focused on the characters of Jerry and Tracy, while Lena’s story from the earlier novel continues here.

The novel opens with Jerry Calvin, a young man with a derelict past that forces him to move to Costa Rica to escape the IRS. Jerry prospers there, falls in love, and becomes known as something of a gambler. When he attends a high stakes poker game, his chances of becoming a very wealthy man are within his grasp. So too is the love of his faithful girlfriend. But certain events are set into motion by the poker game that could lead to Jerry’s worst nightmares.

Meanwhile, Tracy Henderson, a member of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, is captured by crazed Mexican drug lord, Felix Carón, during a sting operation gone wrong. Carón also is responsible for dashing Jerry’s dreams of happiness. After Tracy’s death-defying escape from Carón, she teams up with Jerry to plot Carón’s downfall—and in the process, the two allies find they have much in common.

Tracy’s adopted aunt, Lena Mills, is unaware of Tracy’s situation, but she already has her hands full dating the Governor of Florida, Win Stedman. Anne Henderson, Tracy’s mother, has long been Lena’s best friend, and as Anne is dying, she suggests to Lena that she might open her heart to loving Win. The relationship does not go quite as planned, but Anne, despite her own death, has additional plans for Lena’s entry into the hotbed of politics. When Lena meets brash young reporter, Melony Major, she has all the ingredients she needs to serve her country. This second plot to the novel will keep readers laughing, while the first plot has all the suspense of a good adventure story.

“A Nation Best Served Hot” contains so much more that to describe it too much would give away the story. By far, this novel is the funniest book I have read in a long time. Despite drug lords and some action-adventure and occasionally violent scenes, I roared through numerous pages. The scene in the grocery store alone is worth the price of the book, and hilarious scenes with politicians and on airplanes are just a few of the other laugh out-loud moments of the novel.

The characters are bold, brave, and not afraid to speak their minds, and even though they may not be conventional or necessarily always good, they are extremely likeable so readers will cheer for them to the end. And at the end is a surprise climax that—you guessed it, will leave readers anxious for the planned third and final book in the series.

“A Nation Best Served Hot” may not burn your mouth, but it certainly will warm you with laughter, and the humor’s after-flavor will linger long after the final page is read.

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