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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another great mystery from Hart!, December 1, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Slice and Dice: A Culinary Mystery (Culinary Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
Just finished reading Slice And Dice last night and loved it! My favorite in the series is still Murder In the Air, but in this book we get more of a sense of Sophie and Bram, who they are and what their marriage means to them when it is tested. Sexy subplot! I was fascinated by the construction of the book too, the way the journal entries follow one story while the narrative follows another. At the end, everything is tied up. Yes, this is a complex story with lots going on, but it didn't confuse me. On the contrary, I found the writing solid and the plotting exceptional. Oh, and I loved the interview that was included in the back of the book where Ellen Hart interviews her lead character, Sophie Greenway. I thought it was not only hilarious, but terribly clever. I'm looking forward to the next Sophie Greenway culinary mystery, Ms. Hart! How long do I have to wait?
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining story, September 10, 2000
This review is from: Slice and Dice: A Culinary Mystery (Culinary Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
Connie Buckridge is the matriarch head of a culinary empire that includes her son, daughter, and stepson. Connie feels elated because she is coming home to Minneapolis-St. Paul to open up a cooking academy. However, on the eve of Connie's biggest personal triumph, Pluto, a Deep Throat like character keeps sending E-mails to investigative reporter Marie Damontraville. The missives state scandal and nasty skeletons prominently lie in the Buckridge closet. Perhaps it is her belief that this Betty Crocker clone could not be so perfect or just her natural cynicism that comes with her job, but Marie believes the messages. She plans to expose Connie's darkest secrets that will in turn crumble a growing culinary empire. Meanwhile, the biggest detractor of the Buckridge kitchen is local food critic George Gildemeister of the Tomes Register. However, someone kills George and newly hired food critic Sophie Greenway finds the body. Suddenly a scandal that dates back to 1963 threatens to boil over and destroy the Buckridge empire. The latest Sophie Greenway culinary mystery, SLICE AND DICE, is an entertaining story that will thrill genre fans. The fast-paced story line is filled with negative relationships that appear ready to explode at any moment. Though there are too many charcaters to keep up with (thank goodness a score sheet exists), most are fully developed with their motives understandable. One does not have to be a food critic to enjoy Ellen Hart's tasty morsel. Harriet Klausner
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Slice And Dice, September 12, 2000
This review is from: Slice and Dice: A Culinary Mystery (Culinary Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
If I had been Sophie Greenway in this novel, I'd have booked a ticket for Italy and joined her son on vacation. It's a wonder that the stress of helping an old friend evade a murder charge and having a tenacious old flame knocking at her her door every single moment didn't have her reaching for Midol more ofter! When restaurant and food critic for the Times Register, George Gildemeister, decides to retire, Sophie is offered the job and she agrees to take it on in spite of her husband's misgivings. And then she finds George's dead body; and a friend of her father's, the owner of a restaurant that Gildemeister had been reviewing badly is accussed of the crime. Sophie feels that she must somehow help her friend out by discovering who did commit the murder. Added to all this is the complication of an old love and the problems that his family is currently facing. The Buckridges have a successful culinary empire and are currently in Minneaploa-St. Paul looking about for a suitable spot to open another branch of the cooking academy. On the surface the Buckridges seem like the ideal successful all American family. But when it comes to light that an unauthorised biography of the family's matriach is about to be written, decades of old resentments and secrets rise to the top to threaten their empire. But for Sophie, the threat she faces is from the memories of her love for Nathan Buckridge, and the temptation that it poses to her marriage. I usually enjoy the Sophie Greenway mysteries, but I found that too much was happening in this book, and that I wasn't too interested in the Sophie-Nathan dilemma at all. I was really hooked on Marie Damontrville, the investigation biographer, and her research into the Buckridge past. I found myself caring a great deal as to whether or not she survived the death threats the Buckridges levelled at her and if she managed to finish her investigation for her book. Not too bad a novel but not quite on par as previous novels in this series.
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