Book description
Experienced pastry chef Johnson whips up an insider's look at San
Francisco's cut-throat restaurant trade. Cranky Mary Ryan has sunk a lot
of time and talent into the in-vogue American Fare, the town's hottest
spot, while grieving over her broken marriage. At work very early one
morning, she steps on a laundry bag stuffed with the dead body of one of
her employees. The investigation soon exposes all the dirty secrets that
the food business would like to keep secret: the philandering chefs, the
silly whims of the dining public, the hiring of illegal aliens, and the
subsistence-living pay scale. Events begin to spiral that, in time, take
out the restaurant's celebrity chef and force Mary to use her unique
skills to uncover a poisonous scheme... Mary Ryan is a reluctantly
divorced pastry chef at an upscale restaurant in San Francisco. Lonely
and grieving over her failed marriage, Mary arrives at work early one
morning to discover that one of her El Salvadoran assistants has been
killed and stuffed into a laundry bag. The intrepid Inspector O'Connor,
Mary's ex-husband's former homicide partner, is the officer who takes on
the case. Mary finds herself in imminent danger as she surreptitiously
investigates the murder. Then someone kills the charismatic chef, and
leaves him in Mary's bed, trying to frame her for the murder. Johnson
has a sharp sense of humor and intimate knowledge of the San Francisco
restaurant business. She lays bare the scandalous restaurant secrets:
the wives, mistresses, promiscuous chefs, illegal immigrants, and dope
smuggling. The book has almost unbearable tension and suspense leading
to a surprise ending. Mary Ryan is an appealing character, and her
interaction with the other characters keeps you glued to the pages. I
missed some sleep finishing this book. Claire Johnson has a real winner
in her first novel and is definitely an author to watch for. Claire M.
Johnson completed the California Culinary Academy's program for
professional chefs in 1983 and worked as a pastry chef in San Francisco
and Oakland for eight years. Set in the restaurant world, Ms. Johnson's
first novel, Beat Until Stiff, won the 1999 Malice Domestic Writer's
Grant. She lives in Lafayette, California, with her husband, two
children, and numerous animals.
