Monster's Chef

April 14, 2014
At the center of this moderately suspenseful novel from Tervalon (Dead Above Ground) is Monster, a Michael Jackson–like eccentric recluse who has surrounded himself with well-paid flunkies in a remote mountain retreat. Gibson, who is on parole and resides in a halfway house, is a former drug addict determined to stay on the straight and narrow and regain what he lost to his addiction: his wife and his successful New York City restaurant. He earns his keep by cooking for the other halfway house residents. The woman who runs the home, Asha, is impressed by his culinary skills, and she helps Gibson get a job as Monster’s chef—a cooking gig unlike any he’s had, and one that eventually involves dead bodies. Tervalon writes evocatively of eccentricity that borders on madness, but his characters, while believable, aren’t interesting enough to hold readers’ attention. Those who can focus on the psychological components of the story are more likely to be entertained.

May 15, 2014
A thriller with some characters that are memorably quirky, perhaps since we've seen them before.Each chapter of Tervalon's (Lita, 2003, etc.) new novel begins with a recipe because William Gibson, the narrator, is a chef-albeit one who's lost his chic Greenwich Village restaurant (and his wife) to his cocaine addiction. After serving time in prison, he lands a job as a personal chef for Lamont Stiles, a rock 'n' roll god better known as Monster. Getting to know the people maintaining Monster's lifestyle is the only treat here. The aptly named Thug is a giant of a bodyguard, a whacko tough guy who's strictly in it for the money. Rita is Monster's wife, playing mute because her man can't stand to hear her talk. Bridget is the stereotypical hip assistant who hates her job, fears her boss and caters to his quirks. They live in secret and spend lavishly. But then a young boy is found murdered on the grounds of Monster's Lair, and the novel begins to unravel. The plot doesn't hold together, and characters drop in and out on a whim. There's potential in the evil weirdness of Monster, the rock star who rules his own universe, but as we learn more about him-a singer who has a penchant for young boys, bleaches his black skin, pays his wife for their child and has a fantastical playground at the Lair-we realize we've been down this road before.Tervalon's novel is ill-fated from the beginning as he really can't improve on his real-life source material.

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May 1, 2014
Success proves to be overwhelming for renowned Manhattan chef Gibson, whose drug habit lands him in jail, then a halfway house. Once his culinary skills kick back in, he secures an eerily isolated gig as chef for Monster, an infamously bizarre pop star living outside L.A. in a vast private kingdom protected by a moat and a fierce private army. Boldly basing this freakish music mogul on Michael Jackson, best-selling Tervalon (Dead above Ground, 2000) creates a tangy tale of suspense spiked with fantasy and wrapped around a peppery investigation into the twisted complexities of race, sex, power, and obsession. Gibson, an African American who could pass as white, spends his days concocting finicky raw food dishes for hyper-thin, racially ambiguous Monster; worrying about Monster's lonely, blond, pregnant wife-for-hire; and fending off security chief Thug, while his nights are rocked by increasingly weird and fearsome goings-on involving designer drugs and little blond boys. How far will things go before Gibson takes a stand? Recipes are included in Tervalon's clever, hair-raising gothic thriller, a novel readers will devour, not savor.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)