Pence, Joanne Books

Something's Cooking: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries)

Joanne Pence

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Best of the Lot 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

It's all down hill from here. Angie Amalfi tumbles through life and always comes out ahead...it gets annoying after a bit. Every man wants to date her, every woman wants to be here. Petite, rich, and ready to face the world??? No, ok so she's still looking for her niche, but honestly this is the only book in the series where she didn't annoy me so badly that I had to put it down. Life is TOO easy for her. Every thing ALWAYS works out. Come on!

She gets herself into stupidly dangerous situations, and Paavo always comes in the nick of time. Then does she learn from the mistake? Nope, there she is the next chapter or book doing the same thing. It gets old fast.

I gave this one three stars because I didn't actually mind the read. Quick and light. It's what made me at least try the second (also not a bad read) and third books in the series. I gave them both a chance (along with one other randomly picked from the set) All fell flat in comparison and even this one wasn't a keeper. I wish I would have gone to the library for it instead.

Editorial Review:

The Heat Is On

For sassy food writher Angelina Amalfi, life's a banquet -- until the man who's been contributing unusual recipes for her column is found dead. Suddenly Angie's being stalked by a killer. Not one to simper in fear, instead she simmers oner the delectable homicide cop assigned to the case. Then two more deaths follow, and Angie is on the run.

Ever resourceful, Angie cooks up a scheme to catch the muderer. The stakes are high, for she's up against deadly arms smugglers and lethal food fanatics. Although it's a case that looks to hot to handle, if anyone can keep her cool, Angie can.

Cooking Up Trouble: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries)

Joanne Pence

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Humorous -- ghosts and homicidal vegetarians 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Fun read. Good send-up of New Age charlatans. Humor and chills. Enjoyed "ghost" story.

Love this series!! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is the third book in the Angie Amalfi series and I have loved each of them. This is a wonderful cozy series where the combination of mystery and romance is well balanced. The mystery keeps me guessing to the end and the romance is just steamy enough to keep me coming back, but not so much that it overpowers the mystery. A good read which I highly recommend.

Romantic but Annoying 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The mystery is intriguing here, even if the wrap-up left a little something to be desired. The backstory in this book also shows promise on Pence's part- it certainly adds a more romantic air to this romance/mystery. Unfortunatly, Angie seems contradictory here- sometimes thoughtful, other times jumping to outrageous petty conclusions in Pence's attempt to work some conflict between the lovers. Angie's character I think goes downhill from here- Cooking Most Deadly is the next book.

Editorial Review:

When chef Angie Amalfi arrives at the Hill Haven Inn in northern California, she finds the romantic getaway is plagued by antagonistic investors, a tasteless owner, a missing person, and a woman after her boyfriend.

Cooking Most Deadly: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries)

Joanne Pence

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Best of the series (so far) 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This one has it all - suspense, romance and humor. If you haven't read any of these books, start at the beginning of the series and keep reading. Even though this isn't the last one, it's my favorite. I hope Joanne Pence keeps turning out the Angie Amalfi books.

Editorial Review:

Although food writer and dilettante chef Angie Amalfi is ready to start thinking about cutting a wedding cake with her delectable homicide detective boyfriend Paavo Smith, Paavo's got other things on his mind -- mainly, the grisly murder of two San Francisco women. While he combs the city for clues to the brutal slayings, Angie begins a quest of her own: searching for a little gem of a restaurant for a magazine review. She discovers three grumpy old men who make a mean marinara, but seem to know nothing about how to run a business. At least not a culinary business. As Angie deals with the diamond-in-the-rough eatery and her sisters' unwelcome wedding advice, Paavo's inquiry points to Angie as next on the killer's hit list. The ever-game Ms. Amalfi takes off her oven mitts to join the investigation. But Angie's leaping head first into the stewpot for sure -- because a murderer with a vendetta is more than willing to give one nosy chef her lethal just desserts.

Cook's Night Out: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries)

Joanne Pence

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Another delightful work in this exciting and humerous series 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

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

Editorial Review:

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.

Cooks Overboard: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries)

Joanne Pence

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this 6th delightful culinary mystery from Joanne Pence, dilettante chef Angie Amalfi plans a romantic cruise with her hunky boyfriend, but hits rough water when murder becomes part of the itinerary.

Food writer and culinary entrepreneur Angie Amalfi imagined a high seas cruise aboard a ship bound for Acapulco with her homicide detective boyfriend Paavo Smith would be heaven. With no crowds or pending police business, it might even provide Paavo the perfect opportunity to propose.

But Angie's "Love Boat" fantasy starts springing leaks almost immediately, beginning with the cook's bizarre attempt to jump ship...in the middle of the ocean! Add an oddball collection of fellow passengers, yawningly unimaginative onboard meals, Paavo's increasingly bizarre behavior, and the fact that someone's been rifling through her luggage, and Angie's soon ready to leap overboard herself. But it's not until she offers to help out in the galley and murder is abruptly added to the menu that Angie finds herself heading into very dangerous waters indeed.

Bell, Cook, and Candle: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries)

Joanne Pence

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Angie and Paavo keep getting better and better! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

After the last book in this series, I was ready for Angie and Paavo to start talking marriage. Well, so was Paavo! But Joanne Pence skillfully keeps us in suspense about that as well as about the identity of the ritualistic killer who seems to be targeting Angie for his ultimate victim until the exciting climax. I look forward to the next mystery in this series because with Joanne's talent, she's bound to keep readers in suspense about pulling off a wedding while scaring the daylights out of us with a clever mystery. She has another winner on her hands!

Editorial Review:

A Dash of Darkness

For once Angie Amalfi's newest culinary venture, "Comical Cakes," seems to be a roaring success! There's nothing funny, however, about her homicide detective boyfriend Paavo Smith's latest case. Paavo's investigating a series of baffling murders that may be rooted in satanic ritual. And when Angie is called upon to deliver a humorous confection to the mysterious owner of a decadent after-hours goth club, the inquisitive gourmet baker suddenly finds herself up to her neck in the demonic business. it gets harder to focus on pastry alone when strange "accidents" and desecrations to her delectable, fresh-baked creations begin occurring with frightening regularity. And if Angie can't help Paavo track down a maniacal serial killer with an obsessively unhealthy interest in her, she might end up as devil's food of a different kind.

To Catch a Cook: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries)

Joanne Pence

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This series is an old familiar friend you want to read 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 18 people found this review helpful.

Homicide detective Paavo Smith grew up believing his mother was a good time girl, who always dumped him and his sister with her neighbor when she decided not to play mommy. The only thing he has that was hers is a cheap cameo broach, which he gives to his San Francisco girlfriend Angie Amalfi, who treasures the gift that comes from Paavo's heart. She wears it everyday until the broach falls out of the setting.

Angie takes it to a jeweler only to learn the piece is a valuable Russian antique that he wants to buy due to its museum-like quality. Angie refuses to sell it and the jeweler agrees to fix it. As soon as she leaves the store, the jeweler places a mysterious call that places everyone connected to the cameo in danger. Paavo's stepfather is in a hospital suffering from a coma after being shot in the head. The jeweler is dead. Numerous efforts to kill Paavo and Angie occur. Paavo believes the current vendetta is tied to something his parents did three decades ago that impacts the Russian Mafia today.

This work is a bit different than the previous Amalfi mysteries because for the first time Paavo accepts comfort and help from someone else. The audience learns more about the inner demons that have driven him for years. By Paavo learning the truth about his past, the healing process finally begins and his girlfriend Angie lovingly assists in the process. Jeanne Pence shows her talent as a mighty good mystery writer and adds a great human element that turns this tale into a fabulous drama.

Harriet Klausner

Editorial Review:

A Nasty Stew

Between her latest "sure–fire" foray into the food industry – video restaurant reviews – and her concern over boyfriend Homicide Detective Paavo Smith's depressed state, Angie Amalfi's plate is full to overflowing. Paavo has never come to terms with the fact that his mother abandoned him when he was four, leaving vehind only an antique brooch to remember her by. But when the bauble vanishes, the jeweler who was repairing it is murdered, and Paavo's surrogate father is critically wounded by a would–be burglar, Paavo decides it's time to discover the truth about his errant parent's life and mysterious disappearance.

Gourmet chef and eager sleuth Angie Smells a tasty mystery cooking. But what's bubbling in this pot is a lethal goulash of intrigues, betrayals, FBI deceptions, and murderous Russian mafia mayhem – an old family recipe for disaster for Angie and her policeman beau.

Two Cooks A-Killing: An Angie Amalfi Mystery

Joanne Pence

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Angie and Paavo are as great as Nancy and Ned... 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Imagine getting a job working in Courtlandt Manor of Pine Valley. To a soap fan this is a dream job, one Angie Amalfi has a chance to live when she lands a job providing the Christmas dinner for the cast of her favorite soap's, Eagle Crest, reunion show. The dream quickly is transformed to a nightmare. The "chef" is an odious little man who makes Angie's life miserable whenever they come into contact. He's determined to not let her into "his" kitchen. The stars are aloof and not nearly as likeable in person as their characters. Everyone Angie knows seems to be dropping in to leave a prop for her to place on the set so they can say their knick knack is a part of the scene, and she has discovered that getting this job might be less a measure of her talent and more a facet of her father's match making schemes. Toss in an old, unsolved murder, a tabloid reporter, and a fresh "accidental" death, and you have a fine hash.

The love of Angie's life, Paavo, is not too thrilled with life either. He misses Angie, and her cooking. Then, referred by Angie's pesky friend Connie, he has a missing person's case dumped in his lap by a "little person", Minnie Petite. The only good part of that is it ties to Angie's situation, and brings them together again.

**** Angie and Paavo are the best mystery couple since Nancy and Ned. You might die laughing, but it is a good way to go. As always, there are recipes guaranteed to kill your diet if you make them included. ****

Editorial Review:

Nothing could drag chef Angie Amalfi away from San Francisco and her beloved policeman fiance Paavo Smith –– except for a job preparing the banquet her all–time favorite soap opera characters will consume during an upcoming Christmas Reunion Special. So Angie eagerly takes off for the estate where the now–defunct "Eagle Crest" was originally filmed. Not thrilled to be staying in the very room from which the young actress Brittany Keegan took a real–life fatal tumble years earlier, Angie is equally disturbed –– and intrigued –– when another corpse turns up in the cellar. Both deaths have been ruled accidental, but the bitter accusations flying back and forth among the reunited cast suggest otherwise. And now that Angie's a guest star in this deadly serial drama, she's suddenly in serious danger of being written out of it permanently.

Too Many Cooks: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries)

Joanne Pence

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Appropriate title for great sequel 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Too many cooks do indeed spoil the broth (and a few other things) in this second mystery in the Angie Amalfi series.
Angie is as naive, spoiled, annoying and hopelessly in love as ever, which for some odd reason I haven't figured out yet, turns her into an extremely endearing and likable character. Paavo and his closet full of childhood hangups is starting to get on my nerves - but let's face it - is there a woman in the world that can't sympathize with Angie in the rollercoaster romance department? While the actual crime investigation plays second fiddle in this book, you just have to read on to find out how the relationship between the two "love birds" develops.
All in all a fun, fast-paced book that is hard to put down. Highly recommended to cozy mystery fans!

Editorial Review:

After talking her way into a job on a pompous, third-rate chef's radio call-in-show, Angie Amalfi has visions of a new career to go along with her hot, new romance with Paavo Smith, a gorgeous homocide detective.

When a successful and much-envied restauranteur is poisoned however, Angie finds the case far more interesting than trying to make her pretentious boss sound good. Some cooks might shy away from such a sizzling case, but Angie can take the heat and stay in the kitchen.

The Da Vinci Cook: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries)

Joanne Pence

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Angie Amalfi is close to one of the biggest breaks of her rocky culinary career––a chance to co–write a cookbook with a famous chef. But as she scrambles to prepare for the impending interview, her realtor sister Cat is suddenly accused of a murder in a rich client's home. A priceless relic––an iron chain that was used to bind St. Peter while in a Roman prison––is missing from her wealthy client Marcello Piccoletti's home, and a murder was committed on the heels of the disappearance. The only person who can clear Cat's name is the client himself, and he's in Rome, tending to his restaurant, Da Vinci's.

Heedless to Angie's stern warning, the always unpredictable Cat insists on traveling to Rome to confront Picoletti, and Angie must drop everything to accompany her sister. The Roman restaurateur has the chain with him in Rome, and exonerates Cat of the murder as well. Unfortunately, the police in the states still suspect Cat and now Picoletti, the only witness, has disappeared. Angie takes a job as a cook at Da Vinci's, hoping to get to the bottom of this complex mess. And when bodies start piling up like balls of fresh mozzarella at an Amalfi family picnic, it looks like Angie and Cat's trip to their homeland may spell arrivederci Amalfis.