Reviews for Roux Morgue
Publishers Weekly - 2/1//08
Roux Morgue
Claire M. Johnson. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (234p)
ISBN 978-1-59058-487-3The growing rift between the “dinosaurs” and the “young brats” on the teaching staff at San Francisco's École d'Epicure fuels the highly amusing action in Johnson's superior second cozy to feature funky pastry chef Mary Ryan (after 2002's Beat Until Stiff ). Mary is unpleasantly surprised when Inspector O'Connor of SFPD homicide shows up as a student claiming he's on stress leave. Although the cop is her ex-husband's married best friend, Ryan and the sexy O'Connor have obvious chemistry. Tension among École's chefs escalates with public insults, a petition to fire one of the classically trained dinosaurs and a water fight in the school's prestigious restaurant. When one chef dies after an allergic shellfish reaction with no shellfish on the menu, and another is strangled at home, Ryan suspects something more sinister than differences of culinary theory. In one of many farcical scenes, Ryan enlists the aid of a hostile friend-of-a-friend to hack into École's computer system to dig for answers. This enjoyable romp should gain Johnson new fans. (Apr.)
Library Journal - 2/1/08
Girl Power! The chick-lit mystery subgenre has been reinventing itself for a while. Outgrowing shoe fetishes and designer clothing obsessions, ditzy single female sleuths have now matured into responsible young women who still turn to friends for help but also rely on their own inner strength and competency. Nancy Martin's latest entry in her "Blackbird Sisters" series, Murder Melts in Your Mouth , reveals how much the sisters, who were left destitute by their parents, are able to handle what life throws at them. Sue Ann Jaffarian's capable paralegal, Odelia Grey, has become a thoroughly competent detective in Thugs and Kisses . And Claire Johnson uses a culinary school in Roux Morgue to illustrate how a young chef can be exceptional both at her profession and snooping around solving murders. You go, girls!
Johnson, Claire M. Roux Morgue . Poisoned Pen . Apr. 2008. c.223p. ISBN 978-1-59058-487-3 . $22.95. M
It has been almost ten years since San Francisco pastry chef Mary Ryan made her mystery debut in Beat Until Stiff , winner of the 1999 Malice Domestic Writer's Grant. Now she is back teaching the art of pastries at her old alma mater. On her first day, she finds her cop ex-husband's partner enrolled in her class, a war between the old-school chefs and more modern cooks, and a murder. Food Channel addicts will enjoy the inside details on cooking school politics, while fans of quirky mysteries will like the outrageous adult behavior on display. Johnson lives in Lafayette, CA.
Kirkus - 2/1/2008
ROUX MORGUE
SECTION: FICTION; MYSTERY
LENGTH: 232 wordsPastry chef Mary Ryan (Beat Until Stiff, 2002) is hired by a culinary institute where murder is on the menu.
After solving two murders at her former job, Mary has had so much difficulty finding new employment that she's happy to be back teaching at her alma mater despite a pay cut and nasty generational battles over cooking styles. She's shocked to find that one of her students is homicide detective Inspector O'Connor, her ex-husband's partner, a man who could be the love of her life if he weren't married with children. Mary's skeptical of O'Connor's claim to be on leave, and when her old friend Allison, another instructor, dies, apparently from a shellfish allergy, Mary marks it as murder and looks to him for help. Allison was engaged to be married to a mystery man who Mary fears is one of her mentors. The pressure mounts when the wealthy father of her best student, Coolie Martin, insists that Coolie be forced to quit the school, and a secret regarding sex with a student is revealed. Meanwhile, Sparks fly between Mary and O'Connor, who continues to deny that he's undercover. Though cooking may be her life, it's Mary's talent for crime solving that will save her.
Sexual tension, cooking tips and a neatly packaged mystery. All in all, a tasty tale.
Publication Date: 4/1/2008 0:00:00
Reviews for Beat Until Stiff
Mysteries - January 16, 2003
By John Orr
San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.comBefore you start yelling about me judging a book by its cover, be advised I conducted a scientific survey by holding up a copy of ``Beat Until Stiff'' to a co-worker and asking what he thought of it, based on its cover.
``Looks stupid,'' he said, with a laugh. Neither of us had a clue it would be worth another look. But after reading several novels for this column, and before beginning the grind for February, I thought I would pick up something that looked light, just for fun.
And -- whoa! -- ``Beat Until Stiff'' (Poisoned Pen Press, 203 pp., $24.95) by Claire M. Johnson of Lafayette, turned out to be delightful, one of the best mysteries I've read in months, and it's the debut of a new writer. If we're lucky, there will be more to enjoy in the future.
It's the story of Mary Ryan, who's 34, cranky, recently divorced and a pastry chef at a fancy restaurant, American Fare, in San Francisco. Her first sentence: ``I debated whether it would be worth ten years in San Quentin if I beat Thom to death with the salt and pepper shakers.'' Contemplated mayhem aside, she's a good egg -- the cover shows a chef cracking eggs into a steel bowl -- and when she discovers a body one morning she reacts by throwing up her breakfast, then locking herself in a bathroom stall, her feet off the floor in case the killer wanders by. No tough-guy posing for her.
American Fare is closed temporarily by the police department, which is in some ways a good break for Ryan, who, like almost all restaurant people, works ridiculously long hours. People think she's tough, partly because she seems so calm at big events. The truth: ``If I don't medicate myself beforehand with massive amounts of Benadryl, I break out in hives from nerves. I've gotten a reputation for being ultra cool in these situations when in reality I'm drugged to the eyeballs.'' With the forced time off, she contemplates the miserable life she has led since her divorce and the dingy house in which she lives: ``The tone of the house matched my state of mind these days -- faded and old.'' But she also -- almost casually -- starts looking into the death of Carlos Perez, her assistant, whose badly beaten body she found curled up and stiff in a laundry bag.
She has always left the business side to her celebrity chef boss, Brent Brown. But she soon discovers that something sneaky is going on. When she puts her nose in a place where it's not wanted and almost loses it to a meat cleaver, she considers giving up her investigation. But, ``I was management. Not a few eyebrows would skyrocket if American Fare tanked because of questionable business practices. I'd spend the next three years looking for work. . . . Or worse, pleading with some D.A. that I was innocent.''
When another body shows up -- in her bed -- she does become a suspect.Johnson went through the California Culinary Academy and worked as a pastry chef in San Francisco and Oakland, and writes accurately of the strange business. ``Despite all the hype, the food business pays barely subsistence wages. A few big name chefs like Brent make a ton of dough, but the majority slog along until they realize they aren't going to make more than about $12 an hour, usually no benefits.'' And she draws a bitterly accurate picture of the social climbers and celebrity fans who populate high-profile restaurants, and a fond but tough portrait of the Bay Area.
``Beat Until Stiff'' has a fine lead character in Mary Ryan and lots of excellent ancillary characters. There are very few details worth criticizing, the plot is extremely well formulated and fast-paced, and the insider view of the big-time restaurant world is delicious indeed.
Publisher's Weekly - November 25, 2002
Claire M. Johnson
Poisoned Pen Press, $24.95 (214p) ISBN 1-59058-040-0Mary Ryan, feisty pastry chef at American Fare, a trendy San Francisco restaurant, finds murder on the menu in Johnson's delicious debut, which mixes an unglamorized, behind-the-scenes view of the upscale restaurant trade with a plot replete with well-timed shocks. Horrified to discover the battered body of one of her El Salvadoran employees stuffed in a laundry bag on arriving for work early one morning, Mary debates whether to call her ex-husband, Jim, a homicide detective with SFPD. As it turns out, Jim's former partner, Inspector O'Connor, takes on the case. Lonely and emotionally fragile in the wake of Jim's leaving her, Mary comes to rely on the tough, bullying O'Connor, whose job is on the line, as more than just a friend, while innate curiosity and love of justice propel her to investigate the crime and into grave danger. The down-to-earth Mary, with her keen sense of humor, casts a sharp eye on the novel's flashier characters: American Fare's showman of an owner, an egotistical chef, the suave maitre 'd in charge of the wine, the designer-clad, social-climbing manager. Assorted wives and mistresses, immigrants and a high-profile lawyer fill out the bill of fare. The restaurant business--its food, financing and philosophy--is here in all its complexity for discriminating mystery palates. (Dec. 2)
Forecast: With its obvious crossover appeal to readers of serious nonfiction books on food (after completing the California Culinary Academy's program for professional chefs, Johnson worked as a pastry chef in San Francisco and Oakland for eight years), this would not look out of place in a cookbook display, especially with subtle jacket
art that gives no clue it's a mystery--a photo of a smiling chef pouring the white from an egg (thumb on yolk) into a metal bowl, with oversized steel stoves and ventilation visible in the background.
Allreaders.com
http://www.allreaders.com/Topics/Topic_6193.asp
Reviewed by Harriet KlausnerPastry chef Mary Ryan graduated from the Ecole d'Epicure cooking school and found a great job working at American Fare, the top restaurant on the west coast and considered by gourmands to be one of the top three restaurants in the country. She should be very happy since she loves to cook but her divorce turned her into an acrimonious, emotionally upset person. Her attitude goes downhill when she arrives early for work only to find the corpse of pastry assistant Carlos Perez stuffed in a laundry bag. Besides the shock of discovery, Mary has no clue why anyone would kill him. When the owner of the restaurant also turns up dead, the victim of a homicide, Mary starts asking questions to see if the two deaths are connected and almost winds up as victim number three. BEAT UNTIL STIFF is a delicious culinary mystery that shouldn't be eaten on an empty stomach because the food descriptions will make the reader ravenously hungry. Despite being upset about her divorce, the audience will take the heroine into their hearts because she is really vulnerable and in ìkneedî of kindness. Though why she turned sleuth chef even to insure her own safety seems questionable, Claire M. Johnson shows a lot of writing talent as she bakes a mystery epicure's delight. Harriet Klausner
The Ridiculous Book Store Reviews
http://www.trbsi.com/reviews/BEAT_UNTIL_STIFF-Claire_M_Johnson.shtml
Reviewed By: MysterybksMary Ryan, pastry chef at American Fare -- the hottest restaurant on the West Coast, is 34, recently divorced from
Jim, a San Francisco homicide inspector, and cranky.Getting a chef's jacket and apron from the laundry room of the deserted restaurant, she steps on a laundry bag. It feels hard, not spongy like a bag of dirty laundry. She opens the bag with her chef's knife and finds Carlos Perez, one of her pastry assistants, beaten to death and neatly folded into the laundry bag. After she throws up and hides in the bathroom to make sure whoever killed him has left, she calls 911. O'Connor, Jim's partner and a friend, is assigned to this case. Mary disobeys O'Connor and puts herself in danger time and time again. But she also helps uncover what has been going on under her nose. Many secrets of the food business at American Fare are uncovered. I found Mary Ryan to be a likeable character even though her life is dysfunctional at best.
If you like food and mysteries, you will like this debut novel. I am looking forward to reading future books.
Under the Covers
http://www.silcom.com/~manatee/johnson_beat.html
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle 11/8/02Mary Ryan, pastry chef at American Fare -- the hottest restaurant on the West Coast, is 34, recently divorced from
Jim, a San Francisco homicide inspector, and cranky. Getting a chef's jacket and apron from the laundry room of the deserted restaurant, she steps on a laundry bag. It feels hard, not spongy like a bag of dirty laundry. She opens the bag with her chef's knife and finds Carlos Perez, one of her pastry assistants, beaten to death and neatly folded into the laundry bag. After she throws up and hides in the bathroom to make sure whoever killed him has left, she calls 911. O'Connor, Jim's partner and a friend, is assigned to this case. Mary disobeys O'Connor and puts herself in danger time and time again. But she also helps uncover what has been going on under her nose. Many secrets of the food business at American Fare are uncovered.I found Mary Ryan to be a likeable character even though her life is dysfunctional at best. If you like food and mysteries, you will like this debut novel. I am looking forward to reading future books.
The culinary world of five star restaurants and chefs is an excellent setting for a murder mystery. Ellen Hart has mined this field quite well in her Sophie Greenway series, and now we have Claire M. Johnson making an auspicious debut as well with her first novel, Beat Until Stiff.
Pastry chef Mary Ryan is not in a good place. Overworked and still trying to recover from a messy divorce (her husband, a police detective, left her for another woman), she is a wreck emotionally. She has let herself go, moved into a house she has done nothing with, and buried herself in her work. The morning of a huge fundraising party at the restaurant where she works, she arrives only to discover the body of one of her co-workers stuffed into a laundry bag. Before long, Ryan is doing some amateur sleuthing of her own, despite the protests of her husband's former partner, who is assigned to the case.
What truly makes this book work is the character of Mary Ryan. Johnson has created a strong character, one who, despite her flaws, is immensely likable. (Who hasn't felt the urge to murder a really annoying co-worker?) Mary is already wrung raw emotionally, and the fact she keeps stumbling over bodies keeps re-opening her wounds. By
trying to focus on finding the killer, she also manages to gain some perspective on herself, and her own life, and begins to emerge from the cocoon of pain she has been sheltering herself in.Johnson has a gift for character, and Ryan is a remarkable creation. I hope Johnson is thinking about turning this into a series. I would like to follow Mary's development and growth as a person, as well as seeing her solve a crime or two (or three).
Contact Claire M. Johnson by email at: clairemjohnson@gmail.com
Read and contribute to Ms. Johnson's blog at:
http://clairemjohnson.blogspot.com/
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