Customer Reviews

State of the Onion (Wheeler Cozy Mystery)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Despite the 3 star rating, I really enjoyed this book. The three stars is on a comparative basis. The most interesting feature of the book is the White House kitchen setting. Most of us have probably not ever thought about the White House Kitchen, and Ms. Hyzy makes it very interesting. On the negative side, there wasn't much to the plot - we read on because we enjoy the characters and the setting. Finally, no one else has mentinged it, but I really disliked Ollie's super-bossy FBI boyfriend, who basically threatened to break up with her because she didn't automatically do what he told her to do. Hope Ollie gets rid of him.

Sometimes, with genre fiction such as mysteries, all I really expect is to not feel irritated by anything as I read the book. I want the writing, the plotting and the characters to be written with an accomplished enough hand that I can lose myself in the story instead of cursing as I encounter something that interrupts the flow. "State of the Onion" gets full marks for not having any annoying stumbles. The White House kitchen is a fresh and interesting setting and a new twist on the cooking mystery angle. The writing and especially the character development is better than I've found in some other long running, popular mystery series and that is very refreshing. I liked "State of the Onion" and will read more in the series. I think the author is well on her way to creating a good series that will get even better.

Olivia "Ollie" Paras is the White House Assistant Chef, a job that she loves but she'd also love to be promoted to Executive Chef since her boss is retiring. There are just a couple of problems: first, the other candidate for the job is a TV chef and Ollie's least favorite person, and second, Ollie accidentally got involved in stopping a man fleeing the Secret Service and now it appears Ollie is in danger.

Tom, Ollie's Secret Service boyfriend, tries to convince Ollie to stay out of the mystery of the fleeing man and let the Secret service do their job-but Ollie's curiosity keeps putting her right in the middle of things. Will Ollie's involvement in the mystery spell the end of her relationship with Tom, or even worse, cost her the job of Executive Chef? When Ollie figures out that she is the only person alive who can identify an international assassin, will she even live long enough to be offered her dream job?

I have really enjoyed several "culinary" mystery series but I think this is my favorite. State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy is the first book of a new White House Chef Mystery series, and this series is off to a wonderful start. This isn't just a book for people who like the mixture of recipes, cooking, and a mystery-this is a first-rate thriller that is filled with interesting tidbits of Presidential history, White House trivia, and of course cooking tips and secrets.

Ollie, the main character in State of the Onion, is intelligent, curious, ambitious, tenacious and fun. I would love to know her personally. Several wonderful secondary, support characters help round out the story too. Tom, Ollie's Secret Service boyfriend, is an interesting character although I wanted to kick him a time or two for being so stubborn and not being there when Ollie needed him.

State of the Onion is an exceptionally well done first book of a new series. Author Hyzy keeps the reader in suspense, entertained, and wanting more throughout the entire story. She is a talented author and one that will be on my favorite author list from this point forward. I can't wait for the next installment in this fantastic new series!

Armchair Interview says: Highly recommend this series to those who love a good mystery, whether you are interested in cooking or not.

As a librarian and a professional reviewer, I want to urge mystery fans not to miss this book! State of the Onion has something for readers who like police procedurals, cozies, recipes, action, humor - in other words, this has something for everyone!

Others have said it here, but I want to reiterate that Ollie is one of the strongest, most intelligent women sleuths seen in a long time in mystery fiction. The White House details are also well researched and fascinating, especially the information on diets of different cultures and history of the furnishings in the famous building. But the action begins on page one and continues through to the end.

What I also liked about this one, and I've given it a positive review in two places, is that Ollie is neither too tough to be believed nor too perfect in her piecing of the clues. She is likeable and human, and easy to relate to even in her exotic setting.
The plot has plenty of surprises. It's well paced and realistic, and readers will be eagerly waiting for the next in the series. I've bought this for gifts for most of my family and suggested it to many patrons of the library. All have enjoyed it!
-Amy Alessio, Schaumburg Township District Library

Assistant chef Olivia Paras works at the White House under the outgoing executive chef Henry Coley who has fed five administrations. Olivia hopes to succeed him and is on her way back to the kitchen with a going away gift for Henry a man Naveen is spotted running away from the Secret Service. Olivia bangs him over the head with a frying pan and she thinks he is hauled off to jail. She later learns he is an agent from one of the other espionage agencies with news that the Chameleon, an assassin has a hit out either on the president or his guest.

Naveen contacts Olivia to meet him to give her the information because he believes the Secret Service is compromised. She agrees to meet him but witnesses instead a secret service operative killing the agent and later learns the culprit is Chameleon. She is the only person alive who knows what he looks like which puts her life in danger. He comes after her but she always manages to escape. The president is hosting guest from countries that been at war for years and while Olivia is getting ready the meals she starts investigating who the target of the Chameleon really is.

STATE OF THE ONION is a combination political thriller and amateur sleuth mystery. The protagonist is a strong willed woman who tries to balance her job with her romance to a Secret Service agent; she also hopes to replace Henry instead of a rival. She is also dealing with the newly appointed head of the Cultural and Faith Based Etiquette Affairs Dept who makes it plain he hopes Olivia's rival gets the job. Julie Henry has written a delightful and mesmerizing crime caper with the added bonus of seeing the support staff who works behind the scene at the White House.

Harriet Klausner

First of all, I'd like to thank Ms. Hyzy for giving us a female protagonist who is intelligent, strong, very likable, and most of all, believable! This heroine doesn't stubbornly throw herself in harm's way over and over again because she refuses to listen to reason again and again, causing the reader to want to shake some sense into her. None of that nonsense for Assistant White House Chef Olivia "Ollie" Paras! What a breath of fresh air!

In State of the Onion, the first in a new series, Ms. Hyzy has married a culinary cozy with a spy/thriller novel - two of my favorite mystery subgenres - and she has done it well. We meet Olivia Paras, an assistant chef at the White House who is auditioning for the position of Executive Chef - a position held by Ollie's mentor and friend, Henry Cooley. As she is returning to the White House after picking up Henry's retirement gift, Ollie finds herself caught up in a foot chase between Secret Service agents and an unknown male intruder on the White House lawn. When it appears that Ollie is the only thing standing between the intruder and freedom, she comes out of hiding and wallops him with Henry's gift, an engraved skillet. After a short debriefing, Ollie is happy to leave the matter in the capable hands of her friends, agents Thomas MacKenzie and Craig Sanderson, and the rest of the Secret Service, that is, until she watches a news clip of the incident that evening.

What follows is a veritable smorgasbord of intrigue and fine dining. Ollie witnesses a murder, and to complicate matters, auditioning against her for the executive chef position is Laurel Anne Braun, a master chef with her own TV show who is well known to the White House Staff - having worked there previously as a sous-chef. To say she is a prima donna is putting it mildly, and her antics add a lot of interest and angst to the story.

Ollie's love interest, Secret Service Agent Thomas MacKenzie, is a very likable character who adds tremendously to the overall story line, and his and Ollie's relationship is fleshed out quite nicely without any resemblance whatsoever to a trashy romance novel, so no skimming necessary - thank you very much for that, Ms. Hyzy!

The book has a very satisfying ending that will sate the reader's appetite for happy endings and fair play, while leaving the reader hoping for more. I'll be anxiously awaiting the next installment of White House Chef Ollie Paras et al. Well done, Ms. Hyzy, well done.

Carol Ann Hopkins 2/29/2008

This book has more substance than most "cozy mysteries". The main character is the assistant to the head chef of the White House. When coming to work one day, Ollie witnesses a stranger running through the White House lawn with Secret Service agents in pursuit. Ollie becomes entangled in this mysterious adventure. A sub-plot is about the star of a cooking show (Laurel Anne) auditioning for the job of Head Chef. Very good start to a new series - White House Chef Mysteries.

With the plethora of 'theme' mysteries (bookstores, chocolatiers, tea shops, knitters, quilters, caterers, scrappers, etc.), I was pretty much expecting something along those same lines.

This was surprising different perhaps because the average person knows nothing about the behind the scenes White House.

Although the reader is getting to know a whole new set of characters, the plot was not bad, and I found the chaos and detail of preparations for State dinners and everyday meals so well done that 10 or 15 pages had passed without my noticing that I was breezing through them.

I'm holding off analyzing the characters until the next book. Olivia (Ollie), the protagonist, doesn't do as many stupid things as most sleuths do in these kinds of books. I give the author credit for moving her plot along without making her characters' actions more implausible than they might have been.

All in all it was a pleasurable read and I learned a few things about the President's Secret Service detail, Camp David, protocol, and Muslim dietary laws.

I'm looking forward to more books in this series.

Oh, I should also say that it seems that Berkley Crime has FINALLY hired an editor. This was the first Berkley crime I've read in years without plot flubs, misspellings, and grammar and punctuation errors. Thank you Berkley Crime!

The protagonist is an intelligent woman with a pleasant disposition. I will definitely read more in this series. I have two criticisms. First, as others have mentioned, she has an obnoxious boy friend. Maybe the author can improve him as the series goes on because it is useful for our heroine to have a boyfriend in the Secret Service. The other problem is that she makes the unpleasant characters quite unrealistically unpleasant. For instance Ollie's rival for the Head Chef job is so incompetent she never would have made it to that point. And the new White House "sensitivity" person is one of the most INsensitive persons in the book, and it actually seems that he is deliberately sabotaging US foreign policy. This is a loose end the author never explains.

Also, the recipes are pedestrian -- more like diner food. If I were a president, I would definitely want better food than that!

two people I wish I could give this a 10-star rating, but we'll settle for 5! My sister-in-law and I both loved this book and think it's a great beginning for what we hope will be a great series.

No pun intended but we both devoured this book as quickly as our eyes allowed us....enjoying both the main character as well as her surrounding crew....although personally I hope Henry maintains some kind of presence-loved him!! The information about what goes on behind the scenes in the White House kitchen had me mesmerized...we want more!!!

We are looking forward to early December when "Hail to the Chef" will be out....we are hungry for it.....