Book Review: Beat Until Stiff

Reviewed By: Dawn Dowdle

Beat Until Stiff     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Claire M. Johnson
Class/Genre:   Mystery
2002, 214 pp.

Mary Ryan, pastry chef at American Fare -- the hottest restaurant on the West Coast. She is 34, recently divorced from Jim, a San Francisco homicide inspector, and cranky.

Stepping on a laundry bag, she discovers Carlos Perez, on of her pastry assistants, dead, neatly folded into the laundry bag. He'd been beaten.

O'Connor, Jim's partner and a friend, is assigned to this case.

Chef Brent Brown cheats on his wife Sharon with young twenty something women. Currently he's dating Drew Smyth-Sommers and Teri Baxter, who both work at American Fare.

Many secrets of the food business are uncovered. Mary disobeys O'Connor and puts herself in danger over and over. But she also helps uncover what has been going on under her nose.

If you like food and mysteries, you will like this debut novel. I am looking forward to reading other books in this series.

Dawn Dowdle

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Dawn Dowdle

Please visit Dawns website at www.mysteryloverscorner.com