COOK THE BOOKS

A Gourmet Girl Mystery

Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant

Berkley

ISBN: 978-0-425-23246-0

March 2010

Mystery

In her second year in a Master’s degree program in Social Work, Chloe Cater gets herself in a little trouble financially while overindulging her new godson. To pay her bills, Chloe needs to find a part time job, fast. Still heartbroken over the break up with her chef boyfriend, Josh, who has moved to Hawaii, Chloe knows that working for a cook book writer may be too much. But she has to have the job, so she jumps right in. Into hot water that is. When she goes to interview an old friend of Josh’s, Digger, and finds his apartment has gone up in flames leaving Digger charred with the remains, Chloe begins to wonder what is going on. She knows that Digger was too experienced of a chef to have an accident like this happen, it was murder. Finding a murder when everyone seems to have a motive is tricky. It becomes trickier when Josh comes back to look into things as well. Now what is she supposed to do?

COOK THE BOOKS is a prime example of how we are all inter-connected to each other. This mystery will make you stand up and take notice.  Not to mention the recipes sound amazing and made me actually want to try a few instead of just leafing through them. If you like books with a twisting plot, an unexpected ending, and some goodies added in, this book is for you. Although there were a few parts in the story line that seemed monotonous between Chloe and her best friend, Adrianna, overall the book was interesting and well written.  And the ending is well worth it.

Reviewed by Kathy Fisher

Rating:  4