MOUSSE AND MURDER

The murder of an Alaskan chef reveals that the friends who’d known him for years didn’t know him at all.

Charlie Cooke has taken over her mother’s diner in Elkview, where French-trained cook Oliver Whitestone has ruled for years. When he’s murdered shortly after a fight with Charlie over a menu change, she feels guilty and wants to help the local lawman, fondly called Trooper, uncover the killer. The Bear Claw is especially busy with tourists marooned by the weather, but all Charlie’s staff and friends pitch in, and reporter Chris Doucette, a buddy from high school, convinces Trooper that they can help with research. Evidently, everything they knew about Oliver was wrong, beginning with his name. He was abandoned as a child, survived a group-home fire, and has a sister, Kendra Burke, who lives in Anchorage and is reluctant to talk about Oliver except to admit that he was adopted. Sneaking into Oliver’s house, Charlie and Chris discover a well-hidden cookbook manuscript and other papers before Kendra chases them off. They realize that Oliver was hiding his identity and his background in an attempt to escape some mysterious danger. It seems that the only way to uncover the killer is to find out all they can about Oliver’s past and what he could have done that marked him for death.

Logan’s series kickoff is a mundane mix of simple mystery-mongering, food tips, and romance in a beautiful setting.