A SENSE FOR MURDER

One good deed leads to another murder hunt for a California chef with a sideline in sleuthing.

Sally Solari co-owns Gauguin, a French Polynesian restaurant in Santa Cruz that she inherited from her aunt. A former lawyer who’d rather be cooking, she gets an earful from her father, who runs the family’s Italian restaurant, about the large number of people sleeping outdoors in the town. Feeling guilty, she volunteers to help at a fundraiser at Page and Plums, a newly opened restaurant/bookstore, whose dinner and auction will raise funds for the homeless. All goes fairly well until dining-room manager Alan Keeting is found dead and a valuable set of Julia Child’s cookbooks are reported missing. Sally’s boyfriend, DA Eric Byrne, is already at the dinner, and her former boyfriend Det. Martin Vargas soon shows up. Vargas, who knows all too well that Sally’s been embroiled in past murders, warns her off, but when the bookstore owner becomes a suspect and asks for her help, she agrees. Sally’s discussions about living together with Eric, who’s unhappy in his job, are far from a satisfactory conclusion when a concussion he gets in a surfing accident makes him very moody, adding to her angst. Sally has found the missing books, sans signed pages, under a dumpster near Page and Plums and compiled a list of suspects to investigate when she’s attacked and nearly strangled to death while she’s walking her dog, Buster, in a protected green space that’s evidently not so protected. The feeling that she’s touched a nerve with the killer redoubles her commitment to the case.

An enjoyable read for mystery mavens and foodies alike.