Thanks to NetGalley, RBmedia, and Recorded Books for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review.
Yes, this book was written by a TV chef. Apparently he was on Masterchef—I’ve never seen it. But unless he used a very secret ghostwriter, he did a good job! I truly have no idea why the ratings for this book are so low coming out of the UK*, or why the cozy mystery people have not come flocking (though this isn’t a cozy, it does have strong food elements, which those noodleheads** go apeshit over)***.
*It was first published in the UK 2/1/24, but it wasn’t released in the US until 12/24/24.
**affectionate
This book follows Paul, a chef who is in mourning over the death of his partner, Marcus, ten months before. His old friend Christian, a celebrity chef now, hits him up to teach a cooking course at a stayaway cooking school in a fancy old house; Christian can’t fulfill his duties this session as he now has a broken arm and cannot wield a knife, and whatever else would be required of him whilst prepping the foods. Paul takes to teaching the class with gusto, but he and all of his students get a nasty shock when Christian is found murdered early in the week, and it seems that one of the students might be the murderer.
It’s slightly unclear why exactly Paul starts investigating everyone, poking into backstories, and delving out secrets, but he does feel betrayed by his old friend, who it seems he didn’t really know as well as he thought he did. Also, he is a suspect as well, and in a mystery, there is no better motivation for solving a murder than proving your own self innocent.
I did listen to the audio for this, and it was highly enjoyable. Sebastian Humphreys is the narrator, and he did a lovely job.
***Further investigation has unearthed that it’s a combo of people feeling that the author/character was “too highbrow” for them, or they felt “patronized to.” And that the last 25% of the book was rushed and didn’t fit the tone of the first part, which I agree with, but wasn’t a huge ding for me. These people did not have an audiobook and were reading by e-reader. I think readers who listen to this by audio will not have a hard time with either of these things (the emoji texts are completely gone, and we just get mentions that his friend Julie sends them). As for the highbrow complaint in general, some people are smarter than you, and you shouldn’t take it personally. He wasn’t being a dick, he was just being himself.
My biggest issue with this, and why it’s not getting a full four stars, is that I did feel the ending tone went a bit too thrillery for what had come before. I would have much preferred a quieter confrontation. The perilous one we got didn’t do much for the story.
This is actually going to be a series, but I’m not sure I will want to read the rest. I guess we’ll see what I do when it becomes available. (A chef not cheffing but still solving mysteries? Kinda weird. Although I would like to see how the conflict with his stepson turns out, and if he is able to move on from his grief over his partner’s death, and I’m too curious for my own good.)
[3.5 stars, rounded up]