Cooking Up Murder

Hurray! It's been a long time since I've thoroughly enjoyed a book where it wasn't obvious "who-done-it" early on. What a fun read that kept me guessing until the end. Thank you Ms. Bliss!!

Annie and Eve are two of the most opposite people that you will meet - Annie, the sensible and "cute" one, Eve, the outgoing, bold and "gorgeous" one. The two are best friends and have been for a very long time. Annie is going through a tough time, after her self-esteem gets ripped to shreds by her ex-husband, who decided to toss their marriage aside for the dry cleaning woman. Eve has just gotten out of a relationship with a cop, who decided he would rather date another cop. Eve decides to sign herself and Annie up for a cooking class, thinking this will help Annie get out more and do something fun. Little does Annie know that the instructor, Jim, is about to add some massive sizzle to her life. Not only that, but both Annie and Eve are about to get their first taste of detective work. After their first cooking class, Eve realizes she forgot her watch in the classroom. They go back to retrieve it and when they do, they witness one of their classmates in a heated "discussion" with a man that Annie had had a very brief encounter with before class. Not long after, Annie and Eve come across this same man as he lies dying in a dark alley. The police come to investigate the murder, including Eve's ex-boyfriend's newest fling. This sets Eve off into the investigative mode, to prove to her ex that she can one up him and put the pieces of this mystery together to solve the crime. She finally convinces Annie that they should play detective and find the murderer. Annie soon becomes intrigued with the case and finds several leads and bits of evidence. Little does she know that her and Eve are closing in on the answers to the crime. Soon, however, Annie begins to worry that her life may be in danger. Cooking Up Murder is the first in "A Cooking Class Mystery" series. This was a fun and enjoyable read. I am anxious to read the second in the series "Murder On the Menu" to see what trouble Annie and Eve get into again. Great cozy, with a few recipes to add to the mix!

To help her best friend Annie Capshaw recover from her recent divorce (her husband ran off with the dry cleaner) Eve DeCateur signs them up for a ten day cooking class. Annie is skeptical, she can't heat water without burning it, but when she gets a look at hunky cooking instructor Jim MacDonald, she decides to stick around, even though she is convinced he only has eyes for the beautiful Eve. On the first night of classes, Annie and Eve see a classmate arguing with a man and threatening to kill him and later that night they stumble across the dying man. Initially they think he had a heart attack, but when they find out he was poisoned, they suspect their classmate Beyla, who denies knowing the man. Eve and Annie try to convince Tyler Cooper, a policeman who just happens to be Eve's ex-fiancé, that Beyla is the murderer, but he thinks Eve is trying to mess up his case and doesn't believe them, so they decide to investigate the murder themselves. They have plenty to investigate besides the murder: why did Beyla's classmate John lie about being with her the night of the murder? What was Monsieur Lavoie tossing into the dumpster? Why did Beyla's stove blow up during class and who left the note saying "you are next"? Who is the mysterious Alba Stru? What's in the computer disc Beyla is searching for? Will Annie ever learn to cook? "Cooking Up Murder" by Miranda Bliss is the delightful first entry in what looks like it will be a fun cozy mystery series. Annie is a well-written heroine - insecure about herself after her husband left her and insecure about her looks compared to Eve - she is stuck in a rut. Eve is also well written. Although she easily could have been an unlikable caricature - blonde, beautiful with a surgically enhanced figure who has been engaged six times - but Bliss makes her a likable, sympathetic character who is deeper than she initially appears. I could picture Jim as I was reading the book - I'd take a cooking class too if all the instructors were that yummy! There's a nice sense of humor throughout the book and Bliss has a nice way with words that is evident in sentences such as "I chewed over the thought and I have to admit, I didn't like the way it tasted." Much of the humor comes from Annie and Eve who will remind readers of Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz as they blunder into situations. They are far too trusting and tell strangers far too much information, which is part of the fun since they really are complete amateurs. The mystery itself is well plotted and even though there aren't many suspects, there are a couple of unexpected twists at the end of the book that made the mystery even better. Like many other culinary mysteries, there are recipes at the end of the book - make sure you read the last one! "Cooking up Murder" is a nice cozy mystery.

Thirty-five-year-old Annie Capshaw, and her ex-beauty queen best friend, Eve DeCateur, have been bosom buddies since they were in diapers. So it's no surprise that when one of them decides to take a cooking class, the other will quickly follow suit. Which is exactly how Eve, and the reluctant Annie, find themselves spending every night - aside from Sundays - surrounded by other amateur chefs in Clarendon's trendy Tres Bonne Cuisine, as they maneuver their way through cooking with a little guidance from a scrumptious Scotsman chef named Jim, who looks as yummy as the homemade concoctions he whips up in no time at all. However, from day one not all is right at Tres Bonne, for Eve and Annie catch one of their fellow students - an elegant Romanian woman named Beyla - fighting with a hefty guy. A hefty guy whose dead body they stumble over - literally - in the parking lot soon after. When Eve realizes that her ex-fiance, Tyler, is working the case, and refuses to accept any testimony made from the lifelong pals, she gets angry. Now, enlisting Annie's help, she decides that she'll prove Tyler wrong, and solve the case before he even begins finding clues. But as Annie and Eve begin moving further into their investigation, it is obvious that the once reluctant Annie is really getting into this amateur detective gig, and is even more determined than Eve to uncover the killer, and figure out why, exactly, Beyla is acting so strangely. When anonymous threats begin coming in, however, Annie and Eve begin to question whether or not they've bitten off more than they can chew, and it's up to them to put the flame out on this case, before someone else ends up dead. I have become obsessed with watching the FOOD NETWORK, and am literally Rachael Ray's biggest fan. And while my cooking skills leave much to be desired, I still find world of chef-dom to be enthralling. So when I stumbled upon Miranda Bliss' COOKING UP MURDER, I knew it was the book for me. Within these pages, Bliss has created a sizzling tale starring a delectable duo, whose contrasting personalities mesh together to create the ultimate detective team. Annie is level-headed and hilarious. Her self-deprecating personality, and conflicts within herself regarding the opposite sex, her going-nowhere job, and hair emergencies produce a nice side-story to the mystery; while her sidekick, Eve, is more cool and collected. With a flair for fashion, men, and jumping the gun, Eve is a self-confident - and slightly self-absorbed - pal, who helps balance Annie's obsessive tendencies. While the two seem like people from two different sides of the spectrum, their friendship is one people dream about, that will strongly appeal to readers. A spicy concoction that leaves you hungry for seconds! Erika Sorocco

The last year has not been a good one for thirty-five years old Arlington, Virginia bank teller Anne Capshaw. Her husband of eight years left her for the bimbo who works at the dry cleaners and her self-esteem is at an all time low. Her cooking skills, never much to begin with, hit rock bottom when she tries to boil water and ruins the pot. Her best friend Eve enrolls both of them at a cooking class at the upscale Tres Bonne Cuisine. On the first night of class, Annie and Eve witness an argument between fellow student Beyla and a man named Drago. Later that night when they return to the classroom to find the watch Eve left behind they discover Drago's dead body in the parking lot. They call the police; the girlfriend of Eve's former boyfriend is the responding officer. Beyla denies ever knowing Drago even though they both witnessed the fight and locate a picture in the newspaper of them together. When Eve's ex-fiancé talks to the class to find out if they know anything he also tells Eve to butt out of the investigation because he believe Beyla didn't know the murdered victim. That is enough to propel Annie and Eve into high gear not realizing that will put their lives in danger. This charming serio-comic amateur sleuth investigation is the first cooking class mystery and readers will love it due in part to the protagonists, who are great friends and surprisingly realistic detectives. They follow the clues where they take them and although the pair takes chances, they are calculated ones so the audience believes they could do such an investigation. Miranda Bliss lives up to her surname as she writes a blissful who-done-it that is filled with some very funny scenes and characters who care about each other. Harriet Klausner