Better Than Sex: A Mystery Featuring Anneke Haagen [Hardcover]

Susan Holtzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2001

Anneke Haagen was beginning to feel that maybe her marriage to Police Lieutenant Karl Genesko would never take place, but they were finally able to tie the knot in The Wedding Game (SMP 2000) and are now in San Francisco enjoying their honeymoon.

The trip starts out well-they get in a little sight seeing and even catch a 49ers game, which Karl, a former football player, loves. Then they receive an invitation from Richard Killian, Anneke's friend, to come and watch the University of Michigan game at his sportsbar, Maize and Blue, on Saturday. Anneke gladly accepts the invitation, because what could be better than watching the game surrounded by Michigan alumni and getting free food?

But when Anneke and Karl arrive, they discover that a number of things would have been better than going to Maize and Blue. As Anneke tries to watch the game, everyone around her keeps talking about food. "Big Nate's. Now that's the kind of barbecue that..." and "They do the best tampoi rice I've ever tasted" seems to be the common thread of conversation. To make matters even worse, a Michigan graduate student, Lindsay Summers, is questioning everyone about what triggers them to overeat, which doesn't make her very popular. But is that reason enough to kill her?

Anneke and Karl soon find themselves dragged into the investigation to help Richard who has become the prime suspect. As they search for answers amid a shish kebab of food activists with a dozen different agendas, Zoe Kaplan, Anneke's friend in Ann Arbor, makes a startling discovery that turns the investigation upside down and almost turns Zoe into another victim.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Series sleuth Anneke Haagen and Ann Arbor policeman Karl Genesko, honeymooning in San Francisco, get roped into attending a food-tasting at a new sports-themed restaurant. Unfortunately, an annoying Michigan graduate student conducting research on eating triggers is poisoned during the event, and the eight suspects at her table all have ties to the university at Ann Arbor. The restaurant owner pleads for Anneke and Karl's help, which they give, thus providing local police with an important link to Michigan information. Clever food-oriented repartee, satirical wit, and not a little romance will endear this to series fans and others.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Holtzer's Anneke Haagen, a computer consultant from Ann Arbor, returns in her seventh adventure. Anneke is on her honeymoon in San Francisco with new hubby Karl Genesko, ex-Pittsburgh Steeler and now Ann Arbor's chief of police. They make their way to the Maize and Blue Sports Bar, where they plan to enjoy the newest culinary trend--high-fat "Nouvelle Midwest" cuisine--while watching the University of Michigan football game. While all eyes are glued to the game, Lindsay Summers, a Michigan graduate student, drops dead after drinking a glass of unsalted tomato juice. Because the victim was on a crusade to make high-fat food as regulated as tobacco, and everyone sitting at her table had a financial stake in the licensing and sale of Nouvelle Midwest products, there is no lack of suspects with motive and means. Anneke and Karl reluctantly agree to help out the San Francisco police because so many of the suspects have ties back to Ann Arbor. Anneke learns more than she cares to about militant food purists in this lively and humorous tale. Stuart Miller
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Minotaur; 1st edition (August 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312253451
• ISBN-13: 978-0312253455
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,277,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cute--food is a four letter word. Not enough detecting, August 17, 2001

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Better Than Sex: A Mystery Featuring Anneke Haagen (Hardcover)

Lindsay Summers probably had it coming. After all, if you're a complete witch, sleep with a married man, try to get major food groups outlawed, blackmail your advisor, and produce bad research for your disertation, you are probably going to get poisoned. The only question is, who is going to do it.

Just about everyone at the San Francisco sports bar where Lindsay is doing her 'research' are candidates. Even our heroine, Anneke Haagen was just about mad enough to do something violent. But only one of them actually killed Lindsay. Anneke and her police lieutenant Karl volunteer to help the San Francisco police. Better yet, they bring on their secret weapon, Zoe Kaplan, 19-year-old journalism student, to investigate. It's just as well that they do. Zoe turns out to be the only character in the novel who does much investigation at all. While Anneke eats her way through San Francisco, Zoe puts herself in danger and digs out all of the facts.

BETTER THAN SEX is well written, amusing, and offers fine characterization for the minor characters. Unfortunately, the primary characters, Anneke and Karl, don't actually play much of a role in the mystery. Maybe they should have focussed on their honeymoon.

I enjoyed reading this book but think Holtzer could have toned down the food and turned up the mystery.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good mysty series just got better, July 25, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Better Than Sex: A Mystery Featuring Anneke Haagen (Hardcover)

Even on their honeymoon in romantic and picturesque San Francisco, Ann Arbor police Lieutenant Karl Genesko and his new bride Anneke Haagen cannot get away from murder. The newlyweds are eating brunch at the trendy bistro Maize and Blue when a food researcher at Anneke's table suddenly keels over and dies. Somebody put poison in the deceased's tomato juice and since Karl is on the scene when the death took place, he is called by his San Francisco counterpart to explore the Ann Arbor connection.

Most of the people sitting at the table where the victim was killed had some kind of tie to Ann Arbor. The victim, Michigan graduate Lindsay Summers, was obsessive about food. She wanted legislation passed to force people to eat right and she had the ear of a Michigan Congressman who jumped on her bandwagon and made it an issue. Karl, Anneka and the SFPD work together to find the killer but in the end it is Zoe, Anneka's friend at the university who risks her life to solve the case.

In this long running series, Susan Holtzer has a knack of creating characters that will appeal to her audience ensuring that they will want to read all forthcoming books. BETTER THAN SEX is a who-done-it with a lot of humor intertwined into the story line, thus ensuring that the tension never becomes unbearable. The great aspect of this series is that Ms. Holtzer makes us believe that passionate love can be found at fifty as easily as it can at twenty-five.

Harriet Klausner

4.0 out of 5 stars A Serious Message Between the Humor & Action, April 18, 2006

By 

Avid Reader (Franklin, Tn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Better Than Sex: A Mystery Featuring Anneke Haagen (Paperback)

Anneke Haagen has married the man of her dreams, Karl Genesco, former professional football player and now Ann Arbor policeman, and is on her honeymoon in the Foodie capital of the world, San Francisco. Between the souffles, fusion, calories, carbs and sensualness of what we eat, a critic of "unhealthy" food is murdered and the suspects are legion.
This is a light book (too many characters, its one fault) but the author, is obviously "fed up" (pardon the pun) with the new moral police, what I like to call the NPR crowd. Namely, the huge cottage industry of academia/bureaucrats who revel in telling the general public what and how we should eat, drink, smoke, wear, invest, travel - all with the rabid conviction of a televangelist on a last crusade against Satan. In this case, it's our public servants who want to tax "bad food" and force us to eat "correct" foods for our own good, you understand. The bad guy is an obvious take on Atkins (whose diet did wonders for me a couple of years ago I might add).

The perpetrator of the crime is a surprise - well, not really when one considers [plot spoiler] DC and the headiness of power. Throughout, Anneke has witty and sometimes deep insights about her fellow citizen and their motivations. The honeymoon is less-than-romantic since all emotions of desire and love center on food and not people. Nice read.