Retro Reading: Liver Let Die by Liz Lipperman
Liver Does Not Kill!
I had hoped to relate to Jordan McAllister but didn't.
The first in the Clueless Cook Mysteries Liver Let Die, author Liz Lipperman has created some good characters but unfortunately they fall flat. There are also an abundance of secondary characters which tend to distract from the story.
Jordan's goal is to be a sports reporter (I don't) and she's keeping busy doing personals at the local newspaper (I'd love to do that).
When the cooking columnist is injured she's temporarily promoted to the position and her first assignment is to do a review of a local restaurant. Her culinary tastes tend to border on fast food and Hostess Ho-Ho's which present a problem.
At the restaurant she orders foie gras, takes a bite and not liking it ends up putting it into the borrowed purse she brought along. She prefers the bread over her meal, so the waiter sees it and brings more bread.
A couple of days go by and she gets a phone call from the waiter. He insists that he has to talk to her immediately and reluctantly she agrees. After dinner with her neighbors, she goes back to her apartment and falls asleep and is awoken by the police. The waiter has been found dead in the stairwell of her apartment building.
Ultimately Jordan becomes the prime suspect in his death and a knife comes up missing from her kitchen.
That's pretty much the plot and the problem is the story just seems to drag. The only time it seemed like it was starting to pick up was when her "stalker" Alex Montgomery wonders why she's involved in this mess. It's a good premise, but somewhere along the line the story kind of stalls.
One thing Lipperman does at the end of this debut is set up the action for the next installment and there are some tempting recipes so I wouldn't recommend reading on an empty stomach.
Especially if you're hungry.
