Killer in the Kitchen by Donald Bain

Killer in the Kitchen by Donald Bain & Jessica Fletcher ISBN-13: 9780451468383 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Obsidian Released: April 7, 2015

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Goodreads:
Jessica loves the Leg & Claw restaurant, owned by young couple Brad and Marcie. And the restaurant is the couple's dream come true. But when famed chef Gerard Pepe Lebeouf decides to open an eatery right next to theirs, tensions rise fast and hot and lead to a nasty confrontation between Lebeouf and Brad. When Lebeouf is found dead with a knife planted in his chest, Brad becomes suspect number one. But plenty of others had a motive to kill Pepe, and it's up to Jessica to uncover who really added murder to the menu.


My Review:
Killer in the Kitchen is a cozy mystery. This is the forty-third book in the series. You don't have to read the previous novels to understand this one, and this one doesn't spoil the whodunit of previous novels.

Though there is crime scene evidence, we're told only such general information that it doesn't eliminate suspects. Jessica can't get anyone involved to talk with her--even the people she's trying to help--and a lot of people had motive and opportunity. Jessica's main job was to keep asking questions until she caught someone in a lie and then she used that to prompt the truth out of the suspects. Once people started to talk, the murder and whodunit was very quickly uncovered.

The characters were interesting and complex people. You couldn't always tell if they were acting suspiciously or if their behavior was simply amplified by stress and grief. I have a small pet peeve against Jessica in this one. She's solved hundreds of murders and knows better, but twice she doesn't tell anyone that she's going--alone--to confront a strong suspect. This lack of caution wasn't needed for the storyline to work, so I can only guess that it was meant to increase suspense. It didn't work for me.

There was no sex. There was a minor amount of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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