Knife skills

Sagarine Pfister, a Chicago-based chef, is stuck at Louie's, a downmarket restaurant owned by Russian gangsters who come every week for dinner. But one week, when Sagarine shows up to prep the mobsters' meal, she finds her boss, Louie, with his throat slit. She has to start preparing the food and doesn't have time to deal with the cops, so she sticks Louie in the freezer, which turns out to be a regrettable mistake. On the upside, that night, head mobster Anatoly invites her to cater a private party for him. But what she thinks is her good luck is soured because not only are the cops angry about her delay in reporting Louie's murder but the FBI steps in and forces Sagarine to work with them to bring down Anatoly and his mob. The complications pile up, and the action turns dangerous and violent before a series of shocking twists concludes Sagarine's adventure with a bang. Although this one stretches credulity at times, it is nonetheless a riveting, entertaining read that will appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich.

In this tasty series opener, Church (the Jesse O'Hara series) introduces 20-something Chicago chef Sagarine Pfister, who quickly gets tangled up in the Windy City's criminal underworld. One evening, Sagarine arrives at work to find her boss, executive chef Louie Ferrar, dead in the kitchen's walk-in freezer. With an important private party--including Anatoly Morzov, the restaurant's Russian crime boss owner--arriving shortly, Sagarine covers the body with a tablecloth and returns to the kitchen. Keeping Louie's death on the back burner, she delivers such a successful meal that Anatoly invites her to permanently take over as executive chef and cater his own private events. The police, when they finally arrive after a call from the restaurant's host, consider Sagarine's promotion a sufficient motive for murder, and promptly add her to the suspect list. Meanwhile, FBI Special Agent Smith offers to leave Sagarine's drug-addicted sex worker sister alone if Sagarine informs on Anatoly and his crew--which would be dangerous enough if Sagarine wasn't also falling for one of the gang's high-ranking members. With brisk pacing and dynamic characters, Church keeps readers enthralled as her plot spins into violent territory, and successfully conceals a doozy of a twist that sends the series in an unexpected direction. Readers will be hungry for Church to cook up a sequel. (Mar.)

A Chicago chef with a troubled past must cope with an even more troubled present. Louie Ferrar may have hired Sagarine Pfister when nobody else would give her a second look, but now that he's been stabbed to death and frozen solid inside his freezer, Sags is on her own. She reacts by instructing the few staffers at Louie's who know what's happened not to report it till they've completed their dinner service for the guests of Anatoly Morzov, the majority owner of the restaurant. Det. Carter isn't crazy about the nine-hour delay before he was notified, but the dinner otherwise goes off so well that Anatoly demands that Sags cater a party at his house. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Jebediah Smith demands that she accept the job, allow the feds to install hidden microphones around the restaurant, and report back to him on Anatoly and his mobbed-up friends--unless she wants Smith to come down hard on her sister, Gigi, whose own past includes drugs, prostitution, and a nasty childhood secret. An already complicated situation, which includes Sags' stalking by an all-seeing correspondent who acts both smitten and possessive, gets even dicier when impossibly beautiful Ekaterina Belyaev, the sister of Anatoly's lieutenant Valentin Belyaev, makes a play for Sags, who's more than ready to respond in kind. Church tosses in loving descriptions of world-class cuisine, detailed accounts of how to weaponize kitchen appliances against attacking gangsters, and a climax that will leave you gasping. Audiences who wish the TV series The Bear could make room for Russian mobsters are in for a treat. A kickoff to a possible series whose later installments will be hard-pressed to live up to its dizzying standards. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.