Five-Ingredient #9
Two murders combine in Maya Corrigan’s ninth installment of her Five-Ingredient series, A Parfait Crime. Val Deniston first gets drawn into this mystery when her boyfriend, firefighter Bram Muir, comes to her house for dinner. He’s distraught at finding not only a fire, but that the fire resulted in the death of a woman named Jane. Jane also happened to be a part of a play of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, along with Val’s grandfather. Val’s grandfather was also a member of Jane’s Agatha Christie book club and has an in to the group, which helps Val learn more about the victim. Or victims, rather, as one more body is found in Jane’s basement. This poor victim is long dead and locked in a freezer. Needless to say, there are many questions and not nearly enough answers.
Determined to crack the case with his granddaughter, Val’s grandfather volunteers her to replace Jane in the upcoming production. While Val isn’t thrilled at the idea of taking to the stage, she can’t turn her back on the curious nature of the two deaths. The local police aren’t ready to rule Jane’s death a homicide, but there seems to be little other possible explanation for the victim that got the deep freeze. As such, the police chief is more than happy to stop by Val’s restaurant to sample her wares and take whatever investigative tid-bits she’s managed to dig up, even if they don’t see every bit as follow-up worthy.
While Val wants to solve the case for her Grandpa and her boyfriend’s peace of mind, she also has the ulterior motive of self-preservation. Given the close connection between the members of the Agatha Christie book club members, she is more than a little concerned that Jane might not be the last victim they’d face. But even though she keeps her eyes and ears open, there’s no way for Val to predict how the town’s newest addition of a fancy spa would play into everything. Acting out a murder investigation in more ways than one, Val is determined to see both through to the end.
Readers do not need to have read the prior eight books to enjoy A Parfait Crime, but might want to pass the time waiting for the next Five-Ingredient Mystery by seeing all of Val’s adventures. There is a lot of internal dialog on Val’s part, and so we get to see her entire process of how she dissects the clues and other information she gathers. I enjoyed reading about her and her grandfather’s close relationship. Between their investigation and their discussions about recipes, readers can clearly see how much they care and cherish each other, even if her Grandfather does sign her up to be in plays without asking her first, or her going to investigate possible murderers on her own. Either way, A Parfait Crime is a great time and will entertain readers with all of the layers and twists it contains. There are definitely more than five ingredients involved in making this story a success. – Carla Schantz