Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780425252246
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$7.99; $7.99 Amazon
February 4, 2014
✮
Inspiration Valley, North Carolina, is bubbling with excitement for the Taste of the Town festival, and Lila is right in the middle of it all. Along with her coworkers at the Novel Idea Literary Agency, Lila is organizing a grand celebrity chef event, featuring food television's biggest stars, complete with cooking demonstrations, cookbook giveaways, and even a culinary writing contest.
But just as the celebration is about to start, the demo kitchen blows up, taking one of the star cooks with it. With all the explosive egos of the cook's colleagues, it's hard to find someone who didn't have a motive to eliminate the competition. Now Lila will have to scramble to figure out which of her clients is a killer - before someone else gets burned.
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Lila Wilkins, along with the rest of the agents at A Novel Idea literary agency, are planning the first Books and Cooks Festival and have several authors lined up to attend. But when they arrive, it's obvious that there's more brewing under the surface with them than there is in a coffee pot. They don't like each other, and the main attraction, as it were, Klara Patrick, has been making snide remarks to everyone about their cooking, which is making emotions run high.
After a particularly heated encounter, one of the chefs leaves in a huff, and then there is an explosion in the kitchen shortly after. When it is determined he's been killed, it doesn't take the police long to figure out that he was murdered. But discovering the reason why or the person responsible isn't going to be easy, and when another chef is also killed, it's obvious that whomever is doing this has some serious hatred toward the deceased. But figuring it out could be more complicated than anyone expects...
I really was hoping that the author(s) had improved this series by now, but in the first few pages Lila’s boyfriend cop almost sets the kitchen on fire because he doesn’t know not to add liquor to a pan that’s on high heat. Really? Also, he’s in his 50’s and he tells Lila that he can’t even scramble an egg. Oh, sure. A lifelong bachelor but he never learned to cook. Not. Even. An. Egg. Is he so stupid he can't figure it out? I sure hope he was joking, because how is he a cop if he’s this idiotic?
Also - and I've mentioned this before - where are the homicide detectives? Patrol officers do not investigate murders, and if there's none in town they would import one from the nearest city. I'm guessing he's a patrol cop, because not once has he been addressed as Detective Griffiths. Not. Once. Another reason he's not very good at his job: the person murdered wasn't supposed to be in the kitchen, and they never even looked for the real target; they just assumed someone wanted to kill that chef. A real detective never would have made that assumption.
What didn't make sense:
Sean is talking to all the agents and he asks Franklin a question, and Franklin responds with "There are some things that I'd rather remain confidential. Not everything about the private lives of my clients should be laid bare for all to see and judge." When Sean agrees, what does Lila do? In front of everyone, she points out that she gets the impression that Maurice and Joel were a couple at one time. Did she not just hear Franklin say that some things should remain confidential? Could she not have told Sean privately? This, my friends, is what a busybody sounds like. Butt into everyone's business and tell it for the world to know without thinking of ramifications.
At another point in the story when they're talking about Klara's affair, Jude mentions that he thinks Klara is perfectly capable of hurting another person, and Lila wants to know why he thinks that. Hello! She's having an affair! Doesn't Lila think that's hurting another person? Did she forget that her own husband was having an affair? What. A. Moron!
Sean asks Lila to sit in while he's questioning suspects. Say what? Since when do the police allow private citizens - who have no connection to the case - to sit in on interviews?
She mentions that Ryan is 'obviously unstable' and therefore, dangerously unpredictable. Again, the man just lost his wife. Does she expect him to go shopping?
Bentley states that Vicky is one of the agents, which she's not. She's the office manager, although she acts like she's the owner of the company. If I had an office manager like her, we'd have a bit of a talk about her attitude, as in giving one to Lila when she goes to lunch. Not to mention Vicky acts like she has a stick up her rear and is the least likable character in the book.
Speaking of book characters, every single resident of Inspiration Valley is so nice. There isn't a normal person around them; not one crabby soul, no one who is miserable once in a while; they should rename the town Happy Valley. They're all so poetic and loving and sweet. I'm surprised the town's streets aren't covered in sugar while you wade through it, the people are so saccharine.
To top that off, I, for one, am getting really tired of nearly every character in the book quoting literary lines. Geez, you'd think even one of them would get tired of doing it. Not only that, they feel the need to tell us where the line derived from. I'm sure if the reader were curious enough, we could look it up ourself. Instead, we're given that information because it's assumed the reader is too stupid to figure things out in our own way, right?
At the last, why is Sean so willing to allow Lila to help investigate the crime - and now her mother, too? They aren't officers, and shouldn't be investigating. In fact, even when he says he doesn't want to talk about the case, he does anyway. Oh, right - there's no homicide detective so he has no real idea of what guidelines to follow. Never mind.
What didn't make sense:
Sean is talking to all the agents and he asks Franklin a question, and Franklin responds with "There are some things that I'd rather remain confidential. Not everything about the private lives of my clients should be laid bare for all to see and judge." When Sean agrees, what does Lila do? In front of everyone, she points out that she gets the impression that Maurice and Joel were a couple at one time. Did she not just hear Franklin say that some things should remain confidential? Could she not have told Sean privately? This, my friends, is what a busybody sounds like. Butt into everyone's business and tell it for the world to know without thinking of ramifications.
At another point in the story when they're talking about Klara's affair, Jude mentions that he thinks Klara is perfectly capable of hurting another person, and Lila wants to know why he thinks that. Hello! She's having an affair! Doesn't Lila think that's hurting another person? Did she forget that her own husband was having an affair? What. A. Moron!
Sean asks Lila to sit in while he's questioning suspects. Say what? Since when do the police allow private citizens - who have no connection to the case - to sit in on interviews?
She mentions that Ryan is 'obviously unstable' and therefore, dangerously unpredictable. Again, the man just lost his wife. Does she expect him to go shopping?
Bentley states that Vicky is one of the agents, which she's not. She's the office manager, although she acts like she's the owner of the company. If I had an office manager like her, we'd have a bit of a talk about her attitude, as in giving one to Lila when she goes to lunch. Not to mention Vicky acts like she has a stick up her rear and is the least likable character in the book.
Speaking of book characters, every single resident of Inspiration Valley is so nice. There isn't a normal person around them; not one crabby soul, no one who is miserable once in a while; they should rename the town Happy Valley. They're all so poetic and loving and sweet. I'm surprised the town's streets aren't covered in sugar while you wade through it, the people are so saccharine.
To top that off, I, for one, am getting really tired of nearly every character in the book quoting literary lines. Geez, you'd think even one of them would get tired of doing it. Not only that, they feel the need to tell us where the line derived from. I'm sure if the reader were curious enough, we could look it up ourself. Instead, we're given that information because it's assumed the reader is too stupid to figure things out in our own way, right?
At the last, why is Sean so willing to allow Lila to help investigate the crime - and now her mother, too? They aren't officers, and shouldn't be investigating. In fact, even when he says he doesn't want to talk about the case, he does anyway. Oh, right - there's no homicide detective so he has no real idea of what guidelines to follow. Never mind.
The ending felt forced - the killer just decided to tell Lila the truth out of the blue. Why on earth would they think that Lila would just allow a killer to walk away? There wasn't even any suspense building up, and even though the police said they had enough evidence, we never found out what it was. There didn't seem to be any to this reader.
There is always the hope that the author will improve the series, but that hope is fast dimming as it continues. Sorry, but there seems to be very little intelligence in this town.
There is always the hope that the author will improve the series, but that hope is fast dimming as it continues. Sorry, but there seems to be very little intelligence in this town.
https://www.amazon.com/Books-Cooks-Crooks-Novel-Mystery/dp/0425252248/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2398591032
More on Lucy Arlington's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/lucy-arlington/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2398591032
More on Lucy Arlington's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/lucy-arlington/
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