Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; [Audio CD]; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496713841; [9781977354884]
Kensington Publishing; [Tantor Audio]
320 Pages
$7.99; [$23.29]; $6.89 Amazon
April 24, 2018
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When Hayley's idol, cookbook author and TV personality Penelope Janice, invites her to participate in a Fourth of July celebrity cook-off at her seaside estate in Seal Harbor, Maine, Hayley couldn't be more flattered. She just hopes she can measure up. With a who's who of famous chefs whipping up their signature dishes, this holiday weekend has all the ingredients for a once-in-a-lifetime culinary experience.
Instead, Hayley gets food poisoning her first night and thinks she overhears two people cooking up a murder plot. The next morning, a body is found at the bottom of a cliff. Tragic accident or foul play? To solve a real cliffhanger, Hayley will need to uncover some simmering secrets -- before a killer boils over again...
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Hayley Powell is at a book signing for a famous cookbook author that she loves, Penelope Janice, who also has a summer home nearby. When Penelope unexpectedly asks Hayley to substitute as a guest cook at a Fourth of July gathering at her home, Hayley's stunned. It seems someone backed out at the last minute, and Penelope follows Hayley's food column in the newspaper. The catch is she's expected to stay the entire weekend since Penelope is filming the entire thing for a TV special. Of course, Hayley agrees.
But the first night there, dinner isn't a pleasant affair. Penelope is arguing with her husband Conrad, and then Hayley gets a bout of food poisoning, and needs to find a bathroom. When exiting to go back to her room, she overhears two people have a conversation about murdering someone, and she thinks Conrad and Penelope's secretary Lena are the two people talking. So early the next morning she calls her brother-in-law Sergio, who's chief of police, to ask his advice. He arrives to question Penelope, but she blows it off and Conrad, of course, tells Hayley she was having hallucinations. But then Conrad is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, and Hayley wonders if it was truly an accident. Especially when she has an 'accident' of her own that she knows was on purpose. Still, she has no proof. So with the help of her co-worker Bruce Linney, Hayley sets out to find out who wants someone dead...and if she can keep that person alive before she's the next victim...
After a slow start to the series where all I saw was Hayley and her friends doing nothing but getting drunk, this series has improved to the point where I'm actually enjoying reading it, and I'm glad I stuck with it. We don't see a lot of her cronies Liddy and Mona, but then the story is written in such a way that there wouldn't have been much point to them being around, anyway. However, in this one, Bruce makes quite an appearance that is very telling as to where the story line is heading, and it might actually become interesting along the way. We also have the reappearance of one of Hayley's ex-boyfriends added into the plot.
The death occurs early on, and Hayley knows that someone in the household had to be the killer, but she can't imagine it being Penelope, even if it's become apparent that Penelope's marriage was on the rocks. However, with the woman insisting no one would kill him, Hayley's on her own. Then there's an attack on Hayley's life, and she knows she's on the right track. She also discovers that her idol has cracks in her veneer and may not be the person she's thought and admired for years.
When there's another attack on someone else, Hayley's determined to figure things out, even if it puts her in the sights of a killer. By the end of the book, more than one surprise comes forth, and everything comes together nicely, giving us an ending that makes us want to read the next in the series. Recommended.
More on Lee Hollis's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/lee-hollis/
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