Richman, Phyllis Books

Murder on the Gravy Train

Phyllis Richman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Add to the burgeoning cohort of culinary-themed mysteries Phyllis Richman's Murder on the Gravy Train, which provides a second outing for her restaurant reviewer-sleuth, Chas (née Charlotte Sue) Wheatley.

Richman, the restaurant reviewer for The Washington Post, is ideally suited to supply a vivid glimpse of the terrain where big-city culinary and newspaper worlds intersect, and offers a tempting brew of the pleasures and politics of both. Added to the mix is a tale of blackmail, extortion, spying, corruption, and (let's not forget) murder--several times over.

When the chef at one of Washington's most popular new restaurants disappears, Wheatley's curiosity is piqued. No one is forthcoming about his whereabouts, and, almost worse, the restaurant's food, minus the chef, is terribly off. Wheatley takes it upon herself to track down the chef and discovers a widening pool of foul play. In her search, we learn about the illicit side of the restaurant business (readers will think twice about ordering bottled water when they dine out next), and the often-nasty machinations of newsroom life (spying and story thievery). We are also exposed to the bureaucratic yet gruesome grind of a typical homicide department (decayed bodies without ID, for example).

Richman's narrative reads like a semi-autobiographical roman à clef: culinary insiders, real and would-be, will delight in her up-front-and-personal food-world asides. In fact, anyone who enjoys food and foul play--a heady combination--should relish this tale of both, nicely spun out by an author of appetite and imagination. --Arthur Boehm

The Butter Did It: A Gastronomic Tale of Love and Murder (Chas Wheatley Mysteries)

Phyllis Richman

List Price: $6.99 By: HarperTorch Amazon Marketplace: 94 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Read this in a weekend 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

What a good read for a long weekend. This was a spontaneous purchase because I liked the title. I figured that the author had a sense of humor. Boy! Does she?! This is a nice moving book with lots of insider information on the food industry as well as inside the beltway. The characters are well-rounded (and not perfect). I liked every character and did not want a single one of them to be the "dirty guy." The food details without the recipes littering the content is a welcome change, and walking the city streets can help the psyche -- try it! I will definitely buy more from this author.

Editorial Review:

Here's a mystery guaranteed to make you hungry--for the salmon-filled pasta squares that Chef Laurence Levain sells for $20 a pop at his Washington, D.C. restaurant, for the salad of curly chicory and thick chunks of country bacon that first brings Levain and American food critic Chas (for Charlotte Sue) Wheatley together in Paris, for the warm polenta salad and pan-fried three-meat dumplings served at the CityTastes benefit the night that Levain is found dead of an apparent heart attack and Chas--his lover--has to write his obituary. Washington Post restaurant critic Phyllis Richman certainly knows her food, and her skill at keeping a lively mystery plot simmering is almost as impressive.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Ham?

Phyllis Richman

List Price: $23.00 By: HarperCollins Amazon Marketplace: 78 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The indomitable Chas Wheatley is back, in a tale of restaurants, rivalry, and murder most-hoped-for.

Ringo Laurenge is the new hire at the Washington Examiner, an ambitious young reporter with the looks and the brains to become a star. The trouble is, a few staffers at the Examiner would characterize him as an arrogant and sadistic back-stabbing blowhard who deserves to die. And Chas Wheatley is obsessively, shamefully among them. Her worries over Ringo have even begun to cut into her love life. Not only does this guy steal other reporters' stories, he also has a fascination with power, and is determined to destroy a restaurant that has become the focus of Chas's latest research.

While Ringo runs rampant at the Examiner, plots to crush Chas's friends, and cooks up ways to horn in on her territory, the question becomes not whether he will be taken out, but when and who will finally be driven to do it? For Ringo has made more than one enemy since arriving in town, and in a case like this, Chas isn't even sure she wants to find out which one of them has finally had enough.

For mystery lovers and foodies alike, Who's Afraid of Virginia Ham? is a deliciously wicked whodunit with all the right ingredients, served up by the restaurant and newspaper worlds' consummate insider, Phyllis Richman.