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Beluga Stein is taking a cooking class and it's a real killer. This time she's traded her signature loud muumuus for ill-fitting chef attire, including a toque the size of her ego.
A well-liked chef is found dead and it's up to Beluga and her feline familiar, Planchette, to investigate. There's no recipe to follow, only the hope that her erratic psychic ability will hit the spot. Is a supernatural entity stirring up trouble, or something far more dangerous?
Beluga and Planchette can't stand the heat, but there's no way out of this kitchen while murder is the main dish.
Read an Excerpt
Beluga Stein’s Diary
The evil smell lingers.
Even with all the windows in the house open, the doors cracked a notch, the attic fan going full blast, and Planchette’s tail fanning his face like he was Egyptian royalty preparing for personal delivery of a peeled grape, the odor of exploded eggs clings to everything like a sock stuck to the back of a shirt by static cling.
Alas, there is no magic laundry cloth to separate one thing from another. So for now I’ll have to live with sulfuric fumes and pretend I like them. Or at least pretend they weren’t there even after the water long since boiled out of the pot and left the eggs all alone. My choices are severely limited.
Not that I didn’t consider Tanya’s suggestion to move into a hotel room for the night. I did. Briefly. But my reputation in this small town precedes me, so the various housing entrepreneurs said. In rather unkind tones, I should add.
So what if my reservation for three included a surly goat, a cat with an attitude, and myself? Emerson, while a gifted goat in many ways, has not yet mastered opening a mini bar. Planchette has little interest in watching expensive in-room movies unless there’s a female cat in the leading role, and I’ve been housebroken for months now. So why not take us for the night?
Honestly, people can be so rigid.
To: Food-Co
From: Culinary Program
Re: Weekly Purchase Order
—Wheat flour, 100 lbs.
—All purpose flour, 100 lbs.
—Sugar, 50 lbs.
—Butter, 50 lbs.
—Eggs, 4 cases
—Body bag, 1
About the Author:
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mean-cuisine-wendy-w-webb/1007879485
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mean-Cuisine-Beluga-Stein-Mystery/dp/1509259279
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3 comments:
Thank you so much for featuring MEAN CUISINE today - it's appreciated.
How did you go about developing the setting(s) for this story?
Thanks for that question, traciem. I bet you're a writer! I always start with a character---very important---and I know the problem that sets the action/conflict of the story, and I know how the story ends. I don't always finish a story (by story I mean short story, novel, stageplays, and so on) the way I first thought everything would end, but knowing how the story ends is at least something to aim for. I bet you've heard a million times how conflict drives a story, which is true p.s., and conflict is essentially your main character wanting something and not getting it. (Bear with me here about setting.) So, in Mean Cuisine, for example, Beluga Stein literally cannot make a boiled egg without it exploding in her kitchen, so she applies to cooking school, attends orientation, and then goes on a tour of the kitchen where a body is found. How many settings have I described so far? Just going through the settings in this early part of the story lays the groundwork for other settings needed to create the overarching storyline. So the settings will vary as the primary character, and others, make choices. Make sense? Too much information?
And to Wendi, I thank you not only for introducing my book, but by providing space where I can be introduced to people like traciem!
Wendy W Webb
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