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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780060092160
ISBN number: 0060092165
Label: Avon
Manufacturer: Avon
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: November 01, 2003
Publishing house: Avon
Release Date: October 28, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 725332
Studio: Avon
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Product Description:
Homicide
for the
Holidays
Nothing could drag chef Angie Amalfi away from San Francisco and her beloved policeman fiancé 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.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Yeap, I dozed off a couple of times while reading this book cos its so BORING. Its easy to get into this story but the Big problem is the plot or non-existence of a plot of substance to be precise. This is the very first book I have read by this author. Not sure whether her other books are also of a similar vein, if so, I would not read any of her books again.
The plot centers around Angie Amalfi lumped together with a cast of once-upon-a-time famous soap opera stars preparing to tape a TV Christmas reunion show at a winery estate. The entire plot consists of Angie wondering what she is to do with herself as everyone ignores her until she finds another aimless goal, ie, to find out who murdered Brittany, another soap opera star who died about 11 years ago & who was part of the original cast, all of whom are now assembled for the Christmas reunion taping except for Brittany.
It took so long for anything of significance to happen, the buildup to the murder, yes finally, is so far back in the book. Hello? What happened to exposition, climax and resolution in story telling technique, this book totally ignored it & was rather patchy in all areas. By the time the murder happened it became an anti-climax as I was heavily overdosed on the non-existence of a plot!!
Please, more structure to plot before selling it to readers based on so-called authoritative reviews by publishers, the high hopes are completely dashed leaving only a huge disappointment. I have read better amateur sleuths of the chick lit genre than this one.
Rated by buyers 
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Absolutely enjoyed the expansion of Angie's character in TWO COOKS A-KILLING. Pence gave Paavo's history a focus in TO CATCH A COOK; in this book she gave Angie a stretch of space and plot.
I continue to be entertained by the changing nuances in Pence's style in each of the books. Most series novels seem to plot a pattern and stick to it, or at least they follow a composition type to a "T." But, each of the Angie books has a unique identity and "talking" technique, and each one works. Maybe most readers won't notice the writing method changes, but they're fun for me to pick up on.
This book seems to have less of the Sidney Sheldon type of scene shifting which Pence seems to enjoy playing with; the generally uninterrupted narration in this novel gives a pleasantly slower pace than the other books I've read. In the case of this story, the smother flow of scene changes fits the character development, plot, and theme, and made the reading, for me, even more pleasant and the capture more absolute; it made the story ease along naturally, so I was more relaxed reading this novel than the others.
To relax while I'm reading is a definite plus, and that cozy mood does not take away from the interest or intrigue. For an author to successfully work a sensual pace yet keep interest kindled is truly an art, especially in a market climate in which more, more, more speed, shock, action, and gut ripping seems to be demanded of authors by what feels like a profit-panicked-industry understandably terrified of keeping up with TV's RC. Could write a book on that subject, but better get off it for now.
Each of the Angie books has its unique, more-than-the-others qualities, so I can honestly say I love each book and haven't found one yet which seems to "work" less than the others in any way, in providing good escape reading enjoyment with tidbits of complexity and depth to munch on.
However, it's been said by folks wiser than I that most series contain certain books which feel better or less than the others.
That thought has niggled at me each time I pick up a new Angie book, wondering, "Will this be one of the ones which isn't as good as the others? If so, why?"
Of course, since my mission seems to be to find the heart or core of value in each novel, I'm looking for that, and am aiming to be able to "christen" each with honest, 5 Star raves.
Speaking of core value, Joanne Pence certainly accomplished a coup working a springtime reality into a winter plot! The seasonal-contrast-tension from an April-living-scheme shoved seamlessly into a December ambiance fueled one of the best banquet bashing scenes I've ever read! I'll never doubt it. Pence is a master of contrast. She knows when/how to build and relieve tension. She pushes, drives, and manifests her talents in amazing and thorough ways. Was she the very first to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?
LOVED the tasty detail in that food fight scene!!
What an ingenious slant on collecting suspects at a dinner table with an amateur sleuth chef trying to shift the spotlights, after she has thoroughly tantalized readers by dramatizing the cooking process of a several course gourmet meal.
And what author can make a serious scene of the culprit conclusion hilarious and riveting?
Joanne Pence!
She outdid herself with flights of food, resulting in the best of that type of slapstick situation I've read anywhere. Usually in-your-face food fun isn't appealing to me, but the way Pence did it, and the irony of having a culinary mystery use this technique was just fantastically, ironically appropriate. It's intriguing (and fun to me) that the author gave more detail in more vivid syntax in the food scenes which trashed culinary coups than she usually does in the eating/prep parts of plot. For Joanne Pence, it does appear that "Cooking is murder"!
As funny as the banquet brawl was, the contrasting scene with Angie barely defying death as she dangled out a window was equally riveting in a serious, "Oh my God!" way. With Pence's obvious love for contrast I shouldn't have been surprised that she'd cancel the flowing tide of the whole novel's sensual pace and comfy coziness BIG TIME in the ending sequences. It almost felt like she was tired of the easy, almost sweet (and I loved it) flow of the whole book and got pissed off with the plot not being jazzy enough for her standards (though it was for me) when she got to the ending phases of writing. So, she got out the whips and chains and jazzed UP the action and angst several plateaus in the denouements, with lightning-fast stepping and pizzazzy-fancy maneuvering.
What a fun book!
I've been noticing that each sequential book in this series seems to add more to the culinary hits. The taste bud input grows more and more into balsamic ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
Angie Amalfi has been offered a chance of a lifetime. She is to prepare a Christmas meal for the reunion special of her favorite soap opera, Eagle Crest. This meant she had to be separated from her San Francisco homicide detective finace Paavo Smith. But it is only for a short time.
The special is being filmed at the Waterfield estate owned by Dr. Sterling Waterfield. Dr. Waterfield, a friend of Angie's father, is a widower and lives with his two sons, Junior and Silver. Junior once dated Angie's sister, Frannie, but things hadn't worked out.
Eagle Crest had ended ten years earlier, but now the cast was being reassembled for a ten year reunion, a Christmas reunion.
When she arrives, she finds the crew there, but no stars have arrived. She also finds out that Emery Tarleton, the director, wants her to recreate the Christmas meal from an earlier Christmas show and that the actress Brittany Keegan who had played Julia Parker had died in the house. The official reports were that she died in Los Angeles, but in reality she had died in the house. Worse yet, she fell out of the window of the third floor bedroom Angie has been given!
Soon Angie becomes aware that someone is trying to sabotage the filming. The actors arrive and it is soon apparent that they are not very friendly
Angie starts looking into the death of Brittany. It was classified as a suicide, but things just don't appear to be so simple. Many things happen on the set and Angie knows that she needs to unravel the mystery before someone else is hurt, including herself.
I like this series. Angie is a very likeable character. The soap opera actors in this book are so realistic and Angie is the ultimate fan put into a very strange situation.
The setting of an estate really assists in this book because everyone is living together but they can leave the estate when needed.
I highly recommend this book and series.
Rated by buyers 
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Career-challenged chef Angie Amalfi has been hired to cook a sumptuous Christmas dinner for a TV show, and she couldn't be more thrilled. Not only will she get to meet the stars of her favorite nighttime soap as they reassemble for a holiday reunion show, but she'll get to show off her cooking skills to Hollywood and maybe become the subsequent TV celebrity chef. But when she arrives at the winery where the "Eagle Crest" reunion is to be taped, reality falls far short of her expectations. The actors are a bunch of self-absorbed, bitter people who seem to be obsessed with an "accidental" death of a young actress that took place on this very set 11 years ago. Angie decides that if her feast is to be anything but a disaster, she must solve the mystery of what happened to Brittany Keegan and get people focused again on holiday cheer and her wonderful cooking.
Meanwhile, Angie's fiance, detective Paavo Smith, is off solving a series of gang-related killings and the disappearance of a "little person."
While this mystery series endures and plucky Angie is always likable, I can't say this is the strongest book in the series. For one thing, now that Angie and Paavo are engaged, the sexual tension that marked the earlier books is completely absent. Angie and Paavo are rarely even together, and the subplot with Paavo and the gang killings is not connected in any way to the main mystery--and altogether superfluous. The mystery itself, however, is clever, the various suspects are colorful. I particularly liked the scruffy tabloid reporter, Digger, who was one of the more fleshed-out characters. And the climax scene when Angie finally serves her elaborate dinner is a real hoot.
In short, fans of the real nighttime soaps "Falconcrest," "Dynasty," and "Dallas" will enjoy this homage to the genre, and die-hard Angie Amalfi devotees will also enjoy it. If you're new to the series, however, you might try the earlier books, particularly the very first two, which are still available.
Rated by buyers -
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. ****
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