Category: Cozy

Foreign Éclairs by Julie Hyzy Rating: ★★★★ isbn: 9780425262405 Series: White House Chef Mystery #9 Publication Date: January 5, 2016 Pages: 295 Genre: Mystery Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Things are about to really heat up for Ollie. News of a bombing and attempted breakout at a federal prison reveals that the brother of a terrorist she helped defeat is back with a vengeance. And after she gets mugged on her way home from work, the Secret Service won’t leave her side, fearing she is now a target. When a White House staff member is murdered, officials rush to action over a possible security breach. It may be time for Ollie to trade in her apron for a bullet-proof vest as she becomes part of a bold strategy to make sure this terrorist gets his just desserts…

The bad news is that this is the last book in what is a very, very well written cozy series.  There aren’t enough good cozy series left out there and the loss of one is disappointing.

The good news is that this was the author’s decision and as such, this book is written with no loose ends, and for that I am thankful.  It’s bad enough to lose a good series, but for it to end abruptly, with stories half-told, is an insult on top of injury.

Hyzy doesn’t own the copyright on this series or the characters, so while the story brings us to a good place for a series end, it’s also left in an interesting place that allows for someone (Hyzy, one hopes, after obtaining copyright on what is arguably her own work) to someday bring Ollie and Gav back into the thick of things where they belong.

The plot is action packed, fast paced – almost a cozy thriller.  It’s got a bit of an out-there plot like a thriller too, but it works within the confines of the world Hyzy has created from the first.  This isn’t really a mystery at all; we always know who the perpetrators are and what they want; it’s just a matter of what the solution will ultimately cost our MC.  The final part of the roller coaster plot was gripping and left me with a bit of an adrenaline rush.

Thank you, Julie Hyzy, for 9 wonderful adventures with Ollie. I’m gonna miss her and Gav, although I’ll revisit them often in my re-reads.

All the President's Menus by Julie Hyzy Rating: ★★★★ isbn: 9780425262399 Series: White House Chef Mystery #8 Publication Date: January 6, 2015 Pages: 294 Genre: Mystery Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Due to a government sequester, entertaining at the White House has been severely curtailed. So executive chef Olivia Paras is delighted to hear that plans are still on to welcome a presidential candidate from the country of Saardisca—the first woman to run for office—and four of that nation’s top chefs. But while leading the chefs on a kitchen tour, pastry chef Marcel passes out suddenly—and later claims he was drugged. When one of the visiting chefs collapses and dies, it’s clear someone has infiltrated the White House with ill intent. Could it be an anti-Saardiscan zealot? Is the candidate a target? Are the foreign chefs keeping more than their recipes a secret? Once again, Olivia must make sleuthing the special of the day…

A good read, though not as good as the previous four books.  This time Olivia is dealing with a conspiracy tied to a foreign delegation of chefs as well as a government sequester that has left her short a couple of chefs.

I really enjoy Ms. Hyzy’s writing; she doesn’t write to formula and she has interesting ways of changing up her characters’ lives.  She’s dropped a bomb into Olivia and Gav’s marriage that I can see massive possibilities for taking the series in a whole new direction at some point in the future.  I liked that a lot.  I can see Cyan’s future dovetailing nicely with this change as well.  Nothing might come of any of it but at least she has a veteran cozy reader speculating about the “what if?”’s instead of yawning and thinking “yeah, yeah, cozy plot #4”.

I suspect I didn’t love this one as much as previous books because a lot of it centered around a country that the author necessarily had to fabricate and she did such a good job of creating it without aping any existing countries that it made it rather hard for me to invest myself in it.  But the ending was great – I loved that final scene at Blair House (although Olivia’s final scene with the President wasn’t much of a surprise to me; it seemed the only plausible scenario).

The series started off slow for me, but exploded onto my top 10 list at book four, and this book only solidifies my attachment to Olivia, Gav and the rest of the crew.  I’m looking forward to the next book.

Home of the Braised by Julie Hyzy Rating: ★★★★½ isbn: 9780425262382 Series: White House Chef Mystery #7 Publication Date: January 7, 2014 Pages: 293 Genre: Mystery Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Tensions are running high as the White House staff adjusts to a new chief usher and prepares for a high-stakes state dinner, where everything must be perfect. But as the date for the event approaches, things go disastrously wrong when the secretary of defense is found dead in his home, seemingly killed during a break-in. At the same time Olivia’s fiancé, Gav, is looking into the mysterious murder of an old friend. Is there a connection? Despite an increase in security following the secretary’s death, Ollie learns the president is in imminent danger at the dinner and must do everything in her power to get to him—before it’s too late…

This series is the perfect example of a good-but-slow-to-start series.  I read the first three and always thought they were good enough to pick up the next one, but I was never really invested in the characters.

Then the protagonist, Ollie, got a new love interest.  I don’t know why this made such a HUGE difference, but I could not put down the last four books; in fact, I read 4, 5 and 6 back-to-back last year.  You might be thinking ‘well, the sex scenes must have been better’, but there are zero sex scenes.  In the last four books I think the author only mentions them kissing twice.  In passing.  But Ms. Hyzy does an outstanding job, IMO, of creating sexual tension without the sexual descriptions.  Maybe it’s just me.

Home of the Braised is a great entry in this fabulous series – the action and mystery start right away and Ollie is fighting battles on enough fronts to keep things busy without being overwhelming to the reader (if I were Ollie I’d be drinking heavily).  There’s a lot of detail about being a White House chef, but it flows nicely in the story and it’s obvious the author has done her homework.  The writing is smooth, fluid and without any oddities that jarred me out of the moment.  Very little (if any) page filler disguised as internal speculation.

I don’t really want to include much of a synopsis here because it all feels spoiler-y.  Suffice it to say that there are threats to the presidency, the White House, national security and Ollie finds herself in the thick of it.  If I had to complain about anything, I’d prefer the author didn’t turn Ollie into a pariah;  I know any real person involved in at least 7 ‘adventures’ (and counting, I hope) would start to garner questions, if not a 48 hour psych eval, but it got to be repetitive enough to notice in the last couple of books.  Luckily, not so repetitive that it annoyed me.  Everything was excellently plotted though and I thoroughly enjoyed the book from start to finish.  I saw the very end coming, but that’s ok – it wasn’t anything plot related and it was a great way to leave the reader smiling at the end.

I count the months until the next book is out.