Bookstore

AMATEUR SLEUTH/CHICK LIT/
COZY/CRIME/CULINARY/
HUMOR/ROMANTIC/
SOFT-BOILED MYSTERY
STEAMED
by Jessica Conant-Park & Susan Conant
Susan Conant, the acclaimed author of the Dog Lover's mysteries and the Cat Lover's mysteries, now teams with her daughter for a new culinary mystery series featuring Chloe Carter (known in the chatrooms as GourmetGirl), food connoisseur and survivor of failed romances. On a quest for the perfect meal-and man-she risks a blind date with a fellow food lover who's stabbed to death before the check comes.

Talk about a rocky love life. Chloe's first date of the week is murdered. Her second date is with the prime suspect. The investigation plunges the amateur sleuth into the gourmet restaurant scene to discover a cutthroat world of killer competition, stormy love affairs, and a recipe for Baby Bok Choy Slaw to die for.
Read A Review:

Chloe Carter is a food connoisseur. She's now a grad student due to a wacky clause in her uncle's will. Before she can touch her inheritance, she has to get a master's degree of her choice.

When she gets burned by her neighbor and boyfriend, she signs up with an online dating service. She's known as GourmetGirl on the Internet. Reluctantly she accepts a date with DinnerDude. The food is good, but Eric's a bore. When he doesn't come back to the table, Chloe finds him stabbed to death in the men's room.

When she attends Eric's funeral, his parents show up with the opinion that she was his fiancée. Not wanting to upset them at the funeral, she plays along. What she doesn't know is this isn't the only interaction she'll have with them!

Her next date is with a yummy chef, but unfortunately Josh's the prime suspect. She doesn't think he did it, so she sets out to find the real killer. She has ulterior motives, because she wants Josh out of jail so she can continue to date him.

Can she find the killer without becoming the next course?

I really enjoyed this book. Chloe was such a fun character. The authors did such a great job that I often forgot two different people wrote this.  Her interaction with her dates and sister were great. Plus her classes and her internship really added to the story. Don't read this when you're hungry. The food descriptions are yummy!

Her many forays into the dating and restaurant scenes were entertaining. I found myself chuckling and laughing out loud when reading this book. This is a great light chick lit mystery. I highly recommend it.

Dawn Dowdle


As soon as the post delivered Steamed, I sat right down and in one sitting read the whole book. It’s clear to see that Jessica has inherited her mother’s gift of writing and this new team certainly brings nothing less from what we’ve already come to expect from Susan Conant with her “Dog Lovers Mystery” series. Between the two of them, you’ll find a culinary mystery filled with humor, murder, romance and of course, some great recipes; a book you’ll certainly be pleased to have read.

Chloe Cantor, a young woman will inherit from her uncle’s estate on one condition; acquiring a college degree. So college bound, selects sociology as her major. She also selected Noah, her downstairs neighbor, as her latest heart throb even though from the beginning he strongly maintained he wanted no commitments. Positive, that she would be the “one,” became tortured after seeing a young blond leave his apartment.

Depressed and going through a sleepless night, Chloe signed up with an internet dating service as “Gourmet Girl.” DinnerDude became Eric and a date to a new restaurant called “Essence.” Eric told her he was considering investing into this restaurant and wanted her opinion. However, her opinion was of little interest to him as he walked around with an inflated ego throwing his weight about.

Leaving her sitting for quite some time, upon taking a phone call, Chloe went in search of Eric only to discover his lifeless body in the men’s bathroom. At Eric’s funeral, she met his best friend, Josh a chef from another restaurant. Sparks immediately flew between the two of them but before it steamed up, Josh had to admit he was the prime suspect.

The murder weapon, a knife belonging to Josh, and with no alibi, gave all the appearance of his guilt. Chloe determined to prove her new “love” innocent, gave way to all the warnings of the police detective.

Steamed, the first in a new series “Gourmet Girl,” is an enjoyable cozy mystery. There is no doubt that Jessica is following her mother’s successful footsteps and between the two of them, will bring us a winner with each book. I wish them all the best and look forward to the future of “Gourmet Girls.”

Skye Lindborg