First line in the book: Early May in Boston.
What this book is about - taken from the blurb:
Chloe Carter has a lot on her plate - cramming for exams, convincing her pregnant best friend that she'll be a great mom, and helping her chef boyfriend with his fledgling restaurant on Boston's posh Newbury Street. There, the staff gets along like petits pois in a pod. They all pull pranks on one another - all except Leandra, a waitress who can't take a joke. Then one morning her dead body is found in a fish truck. Was this a prank gone awry? Or did somebody want her to sleep with the fishes?
I love the introduction to this book, the third entry in the Gourmet Girl series.
Good news first. The book gives the reader plenty of insights into the nitty-gritties of the restaurant business and also regales you with both the good and the shocking stories about the restaurant business, for example, how a business goes about pricing the dishes on the menu, rampant theft or the backstabbing which is all too common in the restaurant business. I cannot imagine the amount of work that goes into running a food business or what the behind-the-scenes is like but it does sound like a madhouse.
The portrayal of Beantown as a place of obscene wealth and stick-thin bodies is spot-on although the heroine is a down-to-earth, girl-next-door kind of girl who lives in a modest condo with an unusual pet. Her circle of friends are also normal, down-to-earth people who work hard to make a living and survive in this cutthroat world. The main characters of the book are the only part of the book I like, unfortunately.
Now the bad news. I am trying very hard to say something positive about this book but I find it much easier to offer you my honest opinion. First of all, it is a strange book and I do not mean it in a good way. It has neither head nor tail and the plot is awful. The writing is below average and all over the place. The ending is very badly thought out. Overall, it has no appeal whatsoever. Apart from the entertaining stories about the restaurant business which I think could be published as a separate book and the fabulously sounding recipes at the back of the book, I cannot not see how this book can be a winner.
However, if you are interested in the restaurant business and a fan of Conant-Park and Conant's other Gourmet Girl mystery books, please help yourself to reading this light-hearted easy-to-read crime mystery, otherwise it is a waste of time. However, being a booklover, I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I hope this book is only a one-off misjudgment.
About the authors:
They are a mother-daughter team, Susan Conant and Jessica Conant-Park. Susan is the author of the Dog Lover's Mysteries and the Cat Lover's Mysteries and six-time winner of the Dog Writers Association of America's Maxwell Award. Jessica has written four books of the Gourmet Girl Mysteries with her mother and is married to a chef.
You can find out more about them and their books on their website at http://sites.google.com/site/conantparkmysteries
Rating: 1/5 (
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