Topped Chef (Key West Food Critic, #3)

by Lucy Burdette

Hayley Snow loves her job as the food critic for Key Zest magazine, tasting the offerings from Key West’s most innovative restaurants. She’d rate her life four stars, until she’s forced into the spotlight…and another murder investigation.

Hoping for some good publicity, Hayley’s boss signs her up to help judge the Key West Topped Chef contest. Stakes are high as the winner could be the next cooking-show superstar. Hayley shows up for the filming nervous but excited, until she sees who’s on the judging panel with her: Sam Rizzoli, big shot businessman—and owner of the restaurant she just panned in her first negative review.

When Rizzoli turns up dead, the police assume his killer is one of his business rivals. But Hayley wonders whether someone is taking the contest a little too seriously. With the police following the wrong recipe, it’s up to Hayley to find the killer before she’s eliminated from the show…permanently.

• ISBN10: 0451239709
• ISBN13: 9780451239709
• Publish Date: 7 May 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: New American Library
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451239709

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

Well, this book was the one that decided whether I continued with the series or not. I was left feeling disappointed by the first two - the main character was just scatter-brained and a bit of a mess. Not the heroine I want to rally behind. So I figured, one more book, if it's as disappointed as the first two, it's gone.

I'm happy to say this book is a marked improvement over the first two. Marked. Hayley isn't a ditz and she's finding her groove and her backbone. The plot was very well laid out with no clear path to who the killer was until then end. Some might not appreciate the lack of 'clues', but it does make for an ending I personally didn't see coming.

I'll admit to being bone dead tired when I read most of this book, so there might have been a fourth star had I been more alert, BUT, the lack of any kind of romantic tension and the over-usage of internal dialogue/introspection would have taken that fourth star away anyway. So, definite signs of improvement, and I'm actually curious about the fourth book and what it will bring. So, we'll see.