Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496732217
Kensington Publishing
304 Pages
$8.99; $7.99 Amazon
May 25, 2021
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Between working as a law firm receptionist, reluctantly pitching in as co-owner of her twin sister's restaurant, and caretaking for her regal Siamese RahRah and rescue dog Fluffy, Sarah has no time to enjoy life's finer things. Divorced and sort-of dating, she's considering going back to school. But as a somewhat competent sleuth, Sarah's more suited for criminal justice than learning how many ways she can burn a meal.
Although she wouldn't mind learning some knife skills from her sous chef, Grace Winston, an adjunct instructor who teaches cutlery expertise in cooking college, Grace is considering accepting an executive chef's position offered by Jane Clark, Sarah's business rival -- and her late ex-husband's lover. But Grace's future lands in hot water when the school's director is found dead with one of her knives in his back. To clear her friend's name, Sarah must sharpen her own skills at uncovering an elusive killer...
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Sarah Winston lives in a carriage house with her Siamese cat, RahRah, and her rescue dog Fluffy. She works as a receptionist at a criminal law firm, and in her spare time helps her sister Emily out at their co-owned restaurant and volunteers at the local animal shelter. This day she's wondering why Emily's sous chef Grace Winston asked her to meet at the local college. When Grace finally does arrive late, she tells Sarah that she's just had a heated argument with the head of the department where Grace is teaching knife skills. When they both go back to Grace's classroom to clean up, they find the man dead. Now it's a crime scene, and Grace is suspected of murder.
But Sarah knows Grace isn't guilty, and asks her employer Harlan to represent Grace. While he doesn't want Sarah investigating and putting herself in danger, Sarah isn't going to listen, of course. When Sarah starts digging, she finds plenty of suspects and motives. But now the question is who wanted the man dead and why? Sarah needs to watch herself, or she might be the next one whose life is sliced short...
This is the fourth book in the series, and I enjoyed it as much as the last one. I do like the fact that Sarah has a twin and they are so different, but I would think that at this point Sarah might want to take a cooking class at that college. I delight in cooking. My three sisters, not so much. But at least they can cook well enough to survive (I hope).
The book had a very good plot, with someone killed practically at the beginning and the rest of the book with Sarah trying to find a murderer. Couple that with her nemesis Jane trying constantly to undermine Emily's success with Southwind, Emily's restaurant on a regular basis, and you have a detailed scenario that gives Sarah's the tools needed to unmask a murderer. But the clues are far between, although they are there if you look for them, and we discover the murderer almost at the same time as Sarah, which is the point of a mystery.
In the end, I thought this was an interesting mystery peopled with plenty of characters, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
More on Debra H. Goldstein's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/debra-h-goldstein/
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