Four Cuts Too Many

April 15, 2021
When a prized employee is accused of murder, a restaurateur has to find the real killer or hire her replacement. The recent expansion of their Southwind Pub and sister restaurant Southwind marks a turning point in the plans Sarah Blair and her twin sister, Emily, have to launch a restaurant group. Keeping staff like sous-chef Grace Winston happy is important to their future success. So Sarah's understandably nervous when Grace asks to meet somewhere no one will run into them, and doubly nervous because she watched Grace leave work the day before to go to their No. 1 competitor, Jane's Place, which is owned by Sarah's nemesis, Jane Clark. Will Jane add insult to injury by stealing her chef, as she stole her husband two years before? Grace and Sarah arrange to talk at Carleton Junior Community College, the local school in Wheaton, Alabama, where Grace is an adjunct instructor of knife skills. Grace runs late, and when she finally does arrive, she's covered in blood. She assures Sarah that an accident in class explains everything. But when the two return upstairs to Grace's classroom, its door is blocked by police officers, behind whom Sarah can make out a prone body. It's Dr. Douglas Martin, the interim chairman of the culinary program, known to faculty and staff alike as Malevolent Monster for his difficult leadership style. Given the blood on Grace's apron and her area of expertise, Grace is a natural suspect, but Sarah's certain the killer must be someone else. If she can only figure out who, maybe she won't have to keep meeting her sous-chef in the clink. A familiar recipe that's more like an old standard than a candidate for a Michelin star.

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