In her sixth mystery featuring Kansas City chef Heaven Lee, Temple (The Cornbread Killer, etc.) serves up fare more short-order than gourmet. Heaven agrees to help an old friend, the wife of coffee importer Truely Whitten, in New Orleans with a benefit for the Sisters of the Holy Trinity, but receipt of an anonymous letter accusing her staff of infecting the food almost puts this plan on the back burner. Heaven travels to New Orleans to confer with other committee members before what promises to be a major fund-raiser. Then news anchor Amelia Hart arrives uninvited to sour the proceedings, while the theft of an 18th-century crucifix and the appearance of graffiti on the sisters' convent walls provoke further consternation. This is too much of a coincidence for Heaven, who voices her suspicions before leaving this pot of trouble to simmer and heading home to hate mail and pastry shells. The week of the benefit, she's back in the French Quarter, plating salads and overseeing the dessert course. When an explosion rocks the neighborhood and the dust clears, Truely is discovered dead in a tub of dishwater. Heaven must find the culprit before she becomes the chef's special. A complex story line that fails to hold together, undeveloped characters, events that contribute nothing to the story—the ingredients of this mystery never set properly. Even the descriptions of restaurant specials fail to appetize. (Aug. 20)
Forecast:Food mystery fans will want to send this one back to the kitchen—and there will be no run on this plat du jour.
