State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy – Book Review

State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy
Published by Berkeley Prime Crime, an imprint of Penguin

As a White House Assistant Chef, Olivia Paras - Ollie, to her friends - has plenty of stress in her life, particularly as her boss and mentor is retiring and she is up against cooking school rival cum television personality for his job. The last thing she needs is anything distracting her right now, but unfortunately nobody told that to the man who broke into the White House grounds as she returned from a break with a commemorative frying pan for her mentor. Suddenly, Ollie finds herself in hot water, embroiled in a course of events. (sorry, I couldn’t resist)

Although I don’t read them very often, I love a good cozy mystery for a change of pace and, as such, I’m so excited to have found Julie Hyzy’s White House Chef series. In my opinion, a cozy is good if it is engaging, the reveal is not overly obvious, and the plot does not become completely ridiculous. “State of the Onion” was absolutely engaging, I found myself reading a hundred pages at a time easily, and even yelling at Ollie when she was about to do something stupid and dangerous. As to the reveal, I had a definite idea as to who the bad guy might be, but Hyzy kept me vacillating between two possibilities right up until the very end. As for the plot, I’m sure there were things that were not completely accurate, but it was nothing for which I could not suspend disbelief, particularly with Hyzy’s engaging storytelling.

I’m very much looking forward to continuing this series, which is now up to four books, with the publishing of “Buffalo West Wing” on January 4th. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

The newest book in this series, “Buffalo West Wing,” was just released. Buy it from Powells*|Indiebound*|Amazon* - or check out my giveaway tomorrow