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2019 | Mystery | Thriller
Restaurateur Sally Solari’s cousin Evelyn may be blind, but she can see all too clearly that her chef mother’s death wasn’t an accidental overdose—she was murdered.
Santa Cruz restaurateur Sally Solari’s life is already boiling over as she deals with irate cooks and other staffing issues at the busy Gauguin restaurant. The rainy December weather isn’t cooling things down, either. So she’s steamed when her dad persuades her to take in Evelyn, her estranged blind cousin whose mother has just died of a drug overdose.
But Evelyn proves to be lots of fun and she’s a terrific cook. Back at the house she’d shared with her mom, Evelyn’s heightened sense of touch tells her that various objects—a bottle of cranberry juice, her grandfather’s jazz records—are out of place. She and her mom always kept things in the same place so Evelyn could find them. So she suspects that her mother’s death was neither accident nor suicide, no matter what the police believe.
The cousins’ sleuthing takes Sally and Evelyn into the world of macho commercial kitchens, and the cutthroat competitiveness that can flame up between chefs. In Leslie Karst’s scrumptious fourth Sally Solari mystery, Sally will have to chop a long list of suspects down to size or end up getting burned.
Leslie Karst
(Author)
| Published by | Crooked Lane Books |
| Edition | Other |
| ISBN | 9781683319535 |
| Language | English |
Images And Data Courtesy Of: Crooked Lane Books.
This content (including text, images, videos and other media) is published and used in accordance
with Fair Use.
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2320 KP) rated
Apr 11, 2019
A stop by Evelyn’s house to pick up a few things she needs bring some surprises to light. Things are out of place. Since Evelyn is blind, she and her mother kept everything in the same spot so that Evelyn could always find what she is looking for without needing help. Evelyn suspects this means someone else was in the house when her mom died. The police have ruled it a suicide by drug overdose, but is Evelyn right? If so, can Sally see the clues to find the killer?
There is a solid mystery here with several viable suspects. I did feel the pacing was a bit off, but I loved how Sally pieced things together and how the climax played out. Sally’s group of family and friends is wonderful, and a couple of sub plots allow us to see more of them. The book is set in the beginning of December; while it doesn’t have a lot of Christmas spirit, there is some, and it adds a fun touch to the book. The standout character here is Evelyn. Through her, we get a look at modern life for a person who is blind, and I found that fascinating. We get five recipes at the end, and they sound delicious if a bit ambitious for this lazy bachelor to attempt to make. (Not that I ever make any of the recipes in the culinary cozies I read.)
Sarah Betts (103 KP) rated
Dec 30, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. My main issue is that all the food talk made me so hungry and as "issues" go that's not bad at all!
I really appreciate the writing of Evelyn. She's actually written as an adult with interests and not as a tall child who brings light to able-bodied folx.
I liked the mystery a lot. The way it was set up as an "obvious" suicide but a family member knows what's up? Definitely my thing!
