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Tart of Darkness

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

First book in the Chef-To-Go Series from New York Times bestselling author Denise Swanson, featuring a delightful cast of small-town characters and a deliciously mysterious murder!

Have a killer craving for cozies? Check out this new series:

  • Perfect for Fans of Joanne Fluke and Kate Carlisle
  • For readers of culinary cozy mysteries and college town cozy mysteries
  • Right when Dani thinks she's hit a dead-end in her career, she unexpectedly inherits an enormous empty mansion in a quaint college town. This gives her the perfect opportunity to pursue her true passion—cooking! So Dani opens Chef-to-Go, preparing delicious, ready-made meals for hungry students attending the nearby university, as well as providing personal chef services and catering events for the local community. To help support her new business, she opens her home to a few students, renting them rooms and becoming almost like a big sister figure in their lives.

    But Dani's sweet new life has a measure of darkness in it: when the friend of one of her boarders is murdered, Dani becomes a primary suspect! She'll have to scramble to clear her name, solve this culinary mystery, and save her business before the killer reappears—perhaps to silence the new chef forever.

    Praise for Denise Swanson's Chef-to-Go mysteries:

    "Fast-paced and fun... Tart of Darkness is utterly unputdownable."—Julie Hyzy, New York Times bestselling author

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      • Library Journal

        March 1, 2018

        When Dani Sloan inherits an old house, it offers her the perfect opportunity to open her dream catering company, Chef-To-Go. But the first time Dani caters a large party, a spoiled rich girl dumps a tray of drinks over her head. When the young woman is found dead the next day, an obviously unhinged police detective targets Dani. She teams up with the attractive head of security at the local university to learn who had the opportunity to kill the woman. It seems quite a few people had reasons to want her dead. Readers familiar with Swanson's "Scumble River" series (Dead in the Water) will recognize a few related names and threads in this series launch, which incorporates the typical cozy mystery tropes. There's a little more emphasis on the romantic attraction than readers will see in many first cozies, and for a change, there's a sympathetic killer. VERDICT The catering business offers plenty of opportunities for an amateur sleuth in a pleasant, if ordinary, series opener that will interest fans of the author's other works.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

        Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • Kirkus

        February 1, 2018
        A comely caterer finds herself in hot water when a crabby client turns up dead.Danielle Sloan couldn't be luckier. Just as she's decided to quit her corporate job at Homestead Insurance and dump her philandering boyfriend, a letter turns up announcing that her grandmother's hitherto unknown childless best friend, Geraldine Cook, has left Dani the 17-room Italianate-style Victorian mansion she was in the process of turning into a bed-and-breakfast when she died. The commercial-grade, Department of Health-inspected kitchen is just the place for her to start a catering business that will prepare nutritious bag lunches to sell to students at nearby Normalton University. And she can rent three of the refurbished bedrooms to Ivy Drake, Tippi Epstein, and Starr Fleming, students who were thrown out of their apartment after a quiet evening soiree turned into a drunken bash. To make sure there's no repeat performance chez Dani, Ivy agrees to let her retired-cop uncle check in at least once a week. And of course Ivy's uncle, Spencer Drake, turns out to be not the doughnut-dulled washout Dani imagined but a trim and sexy 30-something who left the force when undercover work became too stressful. Spencer, who's sworn off women after a short-lived marriage, nevertheless finds himself mooning over Dani's lush lips and nicely rounded bottom. And Dani is thrilled to have Spencer close by when nasty Detective Mikeloff identifies her as the prime suspect in the murder of debutante Regina Bourne, who dies after throwing a royal fit because caterer Dani can't replace the pastries ruined when a drunk guest knocked over a tiki lamp, setting the buffet on fire at Regina's luau-themed party.Like most entries in the female-entrepreneur-who-chucked-a-soulless-corporate-job-for-sole-proprietor-business-venture universe, Swanson offers a spunky heroine, a complicated second-chance love interest, and not much else in her series debut.

        COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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    • English

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