Better Than Sex

Anneke Haagen has married the man of her dreams, Karl Genesco, former professional football player and now Ann Arbor policeman, and is on her honeymoon in the Foodie capital of the world, San Francisco. Between the souffles, fusion, calories, carbs and sensualness of what we eat, a critic of "unhealthy" food is murdered and the suspects are legion. This is a light book (too many characters, its one fault) but the author, is obviously "fed up" (pardon the pun) with the new moral police, what I like to call the NPR crowd. Namely, the huge cottage industry of academia/bureaucrats who revel in telling the general public what and how we should eat, drink, smoke, wear, invest, travel - all with the rabid conviction of a televangelist on a last crusade against Satan. In this case, it's our public servants who want to tax "bad food" and force us to eat "correct" foods for our own good, you understand. The bad guy is an obvious take on Atkins (whose diet did wonders for me a couple of years ago I might add). The perpetrator of the crime is a surprise - well, not really when one considers [plot spoiler] DC and the headiness of power. Throughout, Anneke has witty and sometimes deep insights about her fellow citizen and their motivations. The honeymoon is less-than-romantic since all emotions of desire and love center on food and not people. Nice read.

Which of the extremist Foodies killed the pleasure-hating Food Nazi? Her former boss, the nutcase nutritionist politician? The celebrity chef, or his anorexic social climbing wanna-be-lover (whose own hubbie strays with a Reubenesque beauty), or the going for broke restaurant owner? If you've ever wanted to slap silly someone who ruined a great dinner by dithering on about wine or varieties of mushrooms, this lightweight mystery is for you. Plus, series crimesolvers Anneke and Karl finally get a honeymoon.

Lindsay Summers probably had it coming. After all, if you're a complete witch, sleep with a married man, try to get major food groups outlawed, blackmail your advisor, and produce bad research for your disertation, you are probably going to get poisoned. The only question is, who is going to do it.Just about everyone at the San Francisco sports bar where Lindsay is doing her 'research' are candidates. Even our heroine, Anneke Haagen was just about mad enough to do something violent. But only one of them actually killed Lindsay. Anneke and her police lieutenant Karl volunteer to help the San Francisco police. Better yet, they bring on their secret weapon, Zoe Kaplan, 19-year-old journalism student, to investigate. It's just as well that they do. Zoe turns out to be the only character in the novel who does much investigation at all. While Anneke eats her way through San Francisco, Zoe puts herself in danger and digs out all of the facts.BETTER THAN SEX is well written, amusing, and offers fine characterization for the minor characters. Unfortunately, the primary characters, Anneke and Karl, don't actually play much of a role in the mystery. Maybe they should have focussed on their honeymoon.I enjoyed reading this book but think Holtzer could have toned down the food and turned up the mystery.

Even on their honeymoon in romantic and picturesque San Francisco, Ann Arbor police Lieutenant Karl Genesko and his new bride Anneke Haagen cannot get away from murder. The newlyweds are eating brunch at the trendy bistro Maize and Blue when a food researcher at Anneke's table suddenly keels over and dies. Somebody put poison in the deceased's tomato juice and since Karl is on the scene when the death took place, he is called by his San Francisco counterpart to explore the Ann Arbor connection. Most of the people sitting at the table where the victim was killed had some kind of tie to Ann Arbor. The victim, Michigan graduate Lindsay Summers, was obsessive about food. She wanted legislation passed to force people to eat right and she had the ear of a Michigan Congressman who jumped on her bandwagon and made it an issue. Karl, Anneka and the SFPD work together to find the killer but in the end it is Zoe, Anneka's friend at the university who risks her life to solve the case. In this long running series, Susan Holtzer has a knack of creating characters that will appeal to her audience ensuring that they will want to read all forthcoming books. BETTER THAN SEX is a who-done-it with a lot of humor intertwined into the story line, thus ensuring that the tension never becomes unbearable. The great aspect of this series is that Ms. Holtzer makes us believe that passionate love can be found at fifty as easily as it can at twenty-five.Harriet Klausner