Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781635112061; 9781635112030
Henery Press Publishing
250 Pages
$31/95; $15.95; $4.99 Amazon
March 23, 2017
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Penelope and her Red Carpet Catering crew find themselves transported to a different world when they arrive on their newest movie set in rural Indiana. Surrounded by prickly locals, a nervous director out to prove herself, and a vast forest with secrets all its own, Penelope feels more homesick for the big city than ever before. When she finds their host, owner of Indiana's newest culinary hotspot, dead of an apparent suicide, Penelope works to uncover the darker truths boiling beneath the surface of his seemingly perfect life. Asked to help keep the late chef's restaurant afloat, Penelope is fried trying to juggle two kitchens and a ravenous cast and crew. When the chef's suicide turns out to be murder, and the restaurant is vandalized in the middle of the night, Penelope must find out who is behind it all before she's the next one on the chopping block.
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Penelope Sutherland owns Red Carpet Catering, and she and her crew are in Indiana on a movie shoot, along with her best friend and housemate actress Arlena Madison. While filming a version of Turn of the Screw, Penelope enters the kitchen early one morning in preparation of making breakfast for everyone, enters the walk-in freezer and finds the hanging body of Jordan Foster -- the chef and owner of the inn where they are staying.
After calling the police, Penelope notices things that shouldn't be -- like where are Jordan's boots, and the necklace he always wore. Jordan also owned Festa restaurant, and soon after his death, she's asked by his widow to take over as chef at the restaurant while they search for a replacement. So Penelope is now tasked with two things - catering on the set and running a restaurant - while she's there, and even though it's keeping her running, she's also not sure the chef committed suicide, and neither is the director of the movie, Jennifer, who was Jordan's longtime friend.
The sheriff insists that things like this don't happen in his small town, but when the kitchen is vandalized early one morning, the evidence points to a local man named Bailey whom Penelope thinks is guilty for everything due to his past record. But Penelope soon learns that what's on the surface might not be the truth, and only in digging for it can you uncover the mud beneath, and that mud might just get her suffocated out of everything...
This is the fourth book in the series and I have to say that I have enjoyed them all. It's different in the fact that the protagonist is a chef and a traveling caterer, to boot. She lives with Arlena as her personal chef, and also she and her crew travel to various movie sites around the world. It's an interesting concept, and one I've enjoyed highly.
The mystery starts out simply enough -- with a chef who's suspected of committing suicide -- but his childhood friend refuses to believe it. That's enough to pique Penelope's curiosity, and she soon discovers other things that aren't adding up: the missing boots, missing wine, and a mysterious name keeps popping up on papers she sees. She also discovers that five teens have gone missing in the last five years in this sleepy town, and she wonders if everything isn't connected, and after exploring a bit, she thinks she might be right.
Helping the story along is an appearance once again by Arlena's charismatic father, actor Randall Madison, her brother Max, and Penelope's cop boyfriend, Joey, who's managed to take some time off to fly out to be with her. While the story is clearly centered on Penelope's private investigation, there are some light-hearted moments as well which add to the tale.
The mystery is written extremely well, and the actions surrounding the movie set take second place in the story, just as it is meant to do. There are plenty of false trails that lead you in first one direction and then another, and it is only when you are nearing what Penelope discovers that you also discover the truth. While I was suspicious of one particular character (and rightly so); another unexpected one was added to the mix. It gave a surprise that was both unexpected and rather disheartening to know one could be so unfeeling.
When the murder is solved and the killer is revealed, it comes together beautifully like a dish of paella, everything blending nicely and a feeling of satisfaction at the end. We are also given a hint of things to come, and I will read the next in the series as soon as I can. Highly recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Course-Carpet-Catering-Mystery/dp/1635112036/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3243474539
More on Shawn Reilly Simmons's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/shawn-reilly-simmons/
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