Death Dines Out by Claudia Bishop Review
Berkley, Dec., 1997.Paperback, 235 pages.
ISBN: 0425161110.
Ordering information: Amazon.com.
The Quilliam sisters of Hemlock Falls are back in another
adventure. This time innkeeper Sarah and master chef Margaret
are called to Palm Beach by socialite Tiffany Taylor, the
ex-wife of the fourth largest real estate developer in
America. In exchange for first class tickets and accommodations,
the Quilliams will help Tiffany with her week-long event to
benefit her charity for phobic women by teaching classes at
the renowned Florida Institute of Fine Food. The final
banquet will be a chance for Meg to show her stuff and
perhaps regain her third star from L'Aperitif Magazine.
This generous offer to escape snowy New York seems too good
to be true -- and it is. The Quilliams have barely arrived when
they receive a threatening video from real estate magnate Verger
Taylor who threatens the Quilliams with financial ruin unless
they withdraw from his ex-wife's so-called charity event,
which turns out to benefit women who have a phobia about
marrying for money. Verger naturally views the event as an
attempt by Tiffany to discredit him by having a bunch of
women he's wronged talk about him on national TV. When
Verger disappears from his palatial mansion and his sons
are the prime suspects, the Quilliams have their work cut
out for them. They must solve the mystery of the disappearance
in order to avoid the wrath of the boys' mother, Verger's first
wife, an American icon
beloved to the public who could ruin the Quilliams socially
and financially.
The fifth installment in the Hemlock Falls series is a madcap cozy with a gourmet flavor. The interplay between the Quilliam sisters is always entertaining and the larger than life characters of Verger Taylor, his various ex-wives and the cream of Palm Beach society are wickedly funny. A delicious whodunit.
Return to the February 1998 issue of The IWJ.
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