Killer Gourmet

January 5, 2015
At the outset of McKevett’s engrossing 20th Savannah Reid mystery (after 2014’s Killer Physique), Savannah, the proprietor of the Midnight Magnolia Detective Agency in San Carmelita, Calif., and her husband, Det. Sgt. Dirk Coulter, nab a pair of crooks in time to attend a dinner party at a new restaurant owned by their friends Ryan Stone and John Gibson. Before the meal is served, angry shouts and the sound of breaking glass erupt from the kitchen. Dirk investigates and finds Ryan and John trying to calm their irate celebrity chef, Baldwin Norwood. During the dessert course, a scream comes from the kitchen, where moments later Savannah spots the chef dead on the floor. Savannah and Dirk shift into sleuthing mode and soon learn that Baldwin had no lack of enemies. Natural dialogue and characters with real-life problems set this series well above the cozy average once again. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Associates.

February 1, 2015
This time it's personal for private eye Savannah Reid and her police detective husband, Dirk Coulter (Killer Physique, 2014, etc.).When her longtime friends John Gibson and Ryan Stone open a high-end eatery in San Carmelita, Savannah envisions an endless array of tasty treats coming her way. But before she can lock her lips around her first Crayfish Vol-a-Vent, ReJuvene is shuttered by the untimely death of its chef de cuisine. Whoever butchered Baldwin Norwood certainly had an ax to grind-along with a cleaver and a semiserrated kitchen knife. When she looks for the author of the blood bath in ReJuvene's kitchen, Savannah finds no dearth of candidates. Chef Baldwin's staff hated his guts. But Francia Fortun, Carlos Ortez and Manuel Cervantes provide each other with a time-honored restaurant-worker alibi: They were out back together grabbing a smoke. Perla Viola, Baldwin's girlfriend but not his biggest fan, was at the theater with her daughter and has the playbill to prove it. So his former partner, Yale Ingram, looks like the front-runner. He's got a grudge against Norwood for abandoning their restaurant, Villa Nuevo, to sign on with Gibson and Stone. But because Dirk has his own hunch, Savannah, instead of working for paying customers, devotes herself to helping her hubby collar a killer. McKevett proves that marriage doesn't stop the fun, as Savannah and Dirk bicker and banter their way through their 20th case before retiring to the bedroom to enjoy a generous dollop of Chantilly cream for dessert.

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March 15, 2015
When Ryan and John open a gourmet restaurant, Savannah and husband Dirk can't wait to sample their friends' food. Their first meal at the new place, however, brings more drama than gustatory delight, when the fiery chef, Baldwin Norwood, is viciously murdered in the kitchen. His sous chef and two other staff members were just outside at the time but heard and saw nothing. Savannah learns that those three and many others had plenty of reasons to kill the chef, who took credit for everyone else's work and who was cruel even to the homeless veteran asking for food in the alley. His stepdaughter seems to be the only one grieving the death of the temperamental chef. McKevett expertly mixes details of Savannah's personal life with the crime solving and, of course, the fooda combination that will appeal especially to fans of Joanne Fluke.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)