This novel is marketed toward Janet Evanovich fans who appreciate a spunky, messy, crime-solving heroine. Author Wendy Church provides similar appeal with less madcap characters, more depth and a tight plot.
I’d classify “Knife Skills” as an action crime thriller. Sagarine Pfister is quickly introduced as reckless and impulsive. She also gets to be a confident, competent and gifted chef. Upon becoming mixed up with the mob, danger manages to both lead and follow her. Sagarine’s ambition, stubbornness and sense of responsibility drive the story.
Here’s tonight’s special – a spoiler free plot summary:
Ambition and food
Crime and good food
Murder and great food
Lesbian sex and impressive food
Danger and weaponized food
Betrayal and gourmet food
Resolution and comfort food
Twist ending and killer dessert
While juggling knives and ducking bullets, Sagarine shows she can be both the manipulated and the manipulator. Billed as the first installment of a “Shadow of Chicago Mysteries ” series, I look forward to volume 2.
Quote from page 207: “Maude and I are just friends.” I’d always wondered at the phrase, saying that someone was ‘just’ a friend. Like a friend wasn’t as important as anyone you might have had sex with even once … I realized right then that she was the most important person in my life.
You will gain 10 pounds reading about glorious food. Let me give you a taste of the cuisine: Fresh herb mousse with lemon cream and caviar, chanterelle and porcini mushrooms with shallots sauteed in Pedro Ximenez sherry, white truffle pasta with and without lobster, Wagyu shank osso buco, grilled fresh Alaskan wild king salmon and several varieties of mixed green salads. Fries with black truffle, fried in duck fat. Fresh strawberries dipped in pop rock chocolate, an apple and calvados tart, Grand Marnier dark chocolate mousse. This is the menu for only one of several events.
P.S. Evanovich’s and Church’s main characters have the same initials. Coincidence? Homage? Subliminal Marketing Strategy?
