Death of a crabby cook : a food festival mystery

Format:

Book

Title:

Death of a crabby cook : a food festival mystery

Author:

Pike, Penny author

ISBN:

9780451467812

Publication:

New York, New York : Obsidian, published by the Penguin Group, [2014]

Physical Description:

324 pages ; 18 cm.

Series title(s):

Food festival mystery.

General Note:

"An Obsidian mystery."

Summary:

When restaurant reviewer Darcy Burnett gets served a pink slip from the San Francisco Chronicle, she needs to come up with an alternative recipe for success quickly. Her feisty aunt Abby owns a tricked-out school bus, which she's converted into a hip and happening food truck, and Darcy comes aboard as a part-timer while she develops a cookbook project based on recipes from food fests in the Bay Area. But she soon finds someone's been trafficking in character assassination -- literally -- when a local chef turns up dead and her aunt is framed for the murder. The restaurant chef was an outspoken enemy of food trucks, and now Darcy wonders if one of the other vendors did him in. With her aunt's business -- and freedom -- on the line, it's up to Darcy to steer the murder investigation in the right direction and put the brakes on an out-of-control killer ...

Subject(s):

Women detectives -- California -- San Francisco -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- California -- San Francisco -- Fiction.

Cooks -- Fiction.

Food trucks -- Fiction.

San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction.

California -- San Francisco

Genre:

Mystery fiction.

Detective and mystery fiction

Fiction

Detective and mystery stories.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Silver Falls Library	MYS PIKE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Dallas Public Library	PBK Pike, P. Death	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

First in a new series!

At the San Francisco Seafood Festival, someone is steamed enough to kill a cook....

When restaurant reviewer Darcy Burnett gets served a pink slip from the San Francisco Chronicle , she needs to come up with an alternative recipe for success quickly. Her feisty aunt Abby owns a tricked-out school bus, which she's converted into a hip and happening food truck, and Darcy comes aboard as a part-timer while she develops a cookbook project based on recipes from food fests in the Bay Area.

But she soon finds someone's been trafficking in character assassination-literally-when a local chef turns up dead and her aunt is framed for the murder. The restaurant chef was an outspoken enemy of food trucks, and now Darcy wonders if one of the other vendors did him in. With her aunt's business-and freedom-on the line, it's up to Darcy to steer the murder investigation in the right direction and put the brakes on an out-of-control killer....

RECIPES INCLUDED!

Author Notes

Penny Pike also writes the Party-Planning mystery series under the name Penny Warner. She has published more than sixty books and is a winner of the Macavity and Agatha awards.

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

The growing interest in food trucks will attract readers to Pike's new series. Darcy is downsized from her restaurant-reviewing job at the San Francisco Chronicle and works at her Aunt Abby's comfort-food truck (converted school bus) while writing a cookbook. But there is nothing comforting about a neighboring restaurant owner's murder, especially as Abby was arguing publicly with the man the same day. A food-truck chef is the next to die, and no motive seems to tie the two together. Jake, a baker at a shop called Cream Puff, helps Darcy investigate, and they uncover plenty of secrets, but no answer among the many red herrings. Darcy's family is attacked and finally Darcy has to fight for her life to solve the case. Libraries cannot stock their pantries with every food mystery series, but the food-truck angle and the mouthwatering descriptions of the truck's offerings give this one a very appealing flavor.--Alessio, Amy Copyright 2014 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Consoling herself with a cream puff after being let go as a restaurant reviewer from the San Francisco Chronicle, Darcy Burnett decides to join her Aunt Abby on the Big Yellow School Bus, one of the local food trucks, and start writing a cookbook based on the San Francisco Bay Area food festivals. Not everyone is happy about the food trucks, including one outspoken local chef who clashes with Abby and ends up dead the next day. Hoping to save her aunt and her book dreams Darcy investigates and realizes that the chef's hatred of food trucks put him on the hit list of a large number of people. As the case heats up, Darcy realizes that she may have just found a new recipe for murder. VERDICT Pike's series debut starts off with a bang: a feisty family sets the tone and all the usual suspects are in place. Food truck recipes are included. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.