Thursday, April 9, 2015

Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle




Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle by J.A. Lang is a humorous British cozy mystery.  It is the first full length book in the series. There is a cute short story titled Chef Maurice and the Rather Fishy Tale that introduces you to the characters and setting (and is currently free on Amazon).  Chef Maurice Manchot is the owner of Le Cochon Rouge restaurant and is obsessed with food.  Arthur Wordington-Smythe, food critic for local paper and Chef Maurice’s good friend.  Chef Maurice has not received his mushroom delivery and finds out that Ollie is missing. 

Ollie Meadows is a wild herb and mushroom forager.  Chef Maurice tries to liberate his mushrooms from Ollie’s house (at night) and is attacked.  Someone was already inside Ollie’s house.  Arthur and Chef Maurice look around and find a bag of beautiful Alba white truffles.  These truffles, though, are locally sourced and not from Italy.  They are worth a fortune.  This sets the duo off to find the truffle patch and Ollie. 

Chef Maurice first goes looking for a truffle dog at the local shelter.  He ends up with a cute micro pig named Hamilton.  When they take Hamilton out to look for truffles, Hamilton finds the body of Ollie Meadows in a gully.   Ollie was up to something and food eating duo do not think it was just truffles.  Chef Maurice and Arthur armed with food and alcohol set out to find Ollie’s killer.

At the same time there is romance in the air.  PC Lucy Gavistone is the local constabulary.  She is investigating the murder of Ollie Meadows while trying to keep the locals from contaminating the crime scenes and taking off with evidence.  Patrick, Chef Maurice’s sous chef is interested in Lucy and asks her out on a date.  Lucy agrees to a date but suggests that she cook (the panicked).  The evening does not end well for Lucy, but provides a vital clue into how Ollie was making his money.

I give Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle 4 out of 5 stars.  It is a humorous story with a little romance and a mystery that is very easy to solve. The next book in the series is Chef Maurice and the Wrath of Grapes.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for checking out my review and blog!  I am off to eat dinner and read.  Have a delightful evening and Happy Reading!

Kris

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