Cook's Night Out: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Joanne Pence (Author)

Book Description

Series: Angie Amalfi Mysteries | Publication Date: February 28, 2006

Foodie Angie Amalfi has decided to make her culinary name by creating the perfect chocolate confection: angelinas. Donating her delicious rejects to the Random Acts of Kindness Mission in San Francisco, Angie meets the jittery minister in charge. Soon she volunteers to help organize their first fund-raiser, despite the fact that her beau, police detective Paavo Smith, has warned her away from the place. Before Paavo can stop her, he finds himself facing charges that he's a murderous cop on the take. He suspects a "reformed" sinner at the mission is setting him up but Angie refuses to believe it. Then, faster than you can beat egg whites to a peak, she discovers that the mission harbors more than the needy, and that it's up to her to save not only Paavo's reputation--but his life, too.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joanne Pence was born and raised in San Francisco. A graduate of U.C. Berkeley with a master's degree in journalism, Joanne has taught school in Japan, written for magazines, and worked for the federal government. She now lives in Idaho with her family, which includes a multitude of pets.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Avon (February 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061043966
• ISBN-13: 978-0061043963
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #892,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another delightful work in this exciting and humerous series, November 22, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Cook's Night Out: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Gourmet chef Angelina Amalfi is tired of her cooking career going nowhere. She decides to remedy that problem by creating the most irresistible chocolate the world has ever tasted, the angelinas. However, her experiments result in many delicious but rejected chocolates that she donates to the Random Acts of Kindess Mission. She also agrees to help with the mission's upcoming charity auction.

As Angelina's career hopefully takes off, her lover, San Francisco police officer Paavo Smith, watches his own vocation fall apart. On one case, murder evidence mysteriously disappears leading to the freeing of an obvious killer. This is followed up with the murder of a numbers runner who carries Paavo's phone number on him. The internal affairs department begins to wonder if they have a dirty cop to deal with. However, residing at the mission is a lifetime enemy of Paavo, who plans to destroy the cop by starting with his reputation. It is up to Angelina to not only save her lover's professional credibility, but his life as well..

The fifth novel, THE COOK'S NIGHT OUT, in the delightfully delicious Angelina Amalfi series is a reader's gourmet delight due to the escapades of the lead female protagonist. Paavo is a great character and San Francisco is always a star attraction. The romantic suspense story line is filled with intrigue. The four previous books in Joanne Pence's collection are being released one at a time, starting in February and any fan of romantic suspense needs to read them because they are some of the best books of the nineties.

Harriet Klausner

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Entertaining, February 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Cook's Night Out: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm not quite finished the book, but I couldn't wait to do a review of it. It was very good. It kept you going with trying to find out what was happening and how. It also kept you entertained with some of the things that happened with Angie and Connie. I am thoroughly enjoying this book (the first I have read from this author). I will definitely be picking up her others.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A nice read, but nothing really to write home about, August 4, 2003

By 

pompfis_hoppi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cook's Night Out: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Since I got this book as a present, I could not start with the first book in the series (as I would normally do with any series) and had to jump right in the middle. Although it is already the fifth book in this series, I don't feel that I have missed much not having read the previous four books. Don't get me wrong: it is an entertaining read after a hard, long day (because you don't have to use your brain much), but the villain was simply too obvious, Angelina's attempts at becoming a chocolatier were half-heartedly (at least to me) and there are too many attempts in this book to make it seem like a Diane Mott Davidson-novel....without any recepies and without much success, however. At times I had the impression that Paavo Smith is the main-character of this book and not Angelina Amalfi. Angelina seemed more like a supporting character to me. If you are into Mystries including recipies better get the Goldy Schulz-series by Dianne Mott Davidson (far better) or the PennDutch-series by Tamar Myers (hilariously funny).