Knife Skills for Beginners

October 1, 2024

Murrin, a MasterChef semifinalist and cookbook author, makes his fiction debut with this locked-room mystery. Chef Paul Delamare is filling in as a teacher for a cooking-school residency in a London mansion, but the job turns dangerous when someone is found murdered with Paul's cleaver. Recipes appear throughout the novel and also offer clues. Prepub Alert.

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October 21, 2024
MasterChef semifinalist Murrin puts his culinary expertise to good use in this charming debut mystery featuring London chef Paul Delamere. After culinary celebrity Christian Wagner breaks his arm, he asks Delamere to substitute for him at a posh Westminster cooking school. Delamere agrees, happy both for the extra cash and for the distraction from mourning the recent death of his partner. Delamere’s eight students, each of whom will board at the school for the duration of the weeklong course, include an aristocrat, her daughter, a pharmacist, and a last-minute sign-up who knows the school’s administrator. At first, Delamere’s charges are disappointed that the hunky Wagner won’t be teaching them, but gradually, he wins them over. His good fortune runs out, though, when he finds a corpse in the kitchen, its head nearly severed by a meat cleaver Delamere had used to chop up pigeon carcasses earlier the same day. Delamere becomes the obvious suspect, forcing him to ferret out which of his students is the real killer before he winds up in prison. Murrin delivers a brisk, funny variation on the classic closed-circle formula. A sequel would be welcome. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath Literary.

December 1, 2024
Despite his life's ups and downs, Christian Wagner is a superstar in the world of cooking. Following a professional setback, he finds work as an instructor at a small, exclusive cooking school but is unable to teach the incoming class due to a broken arm. Having not seen his friend Christian in years, Paul Delamare is surprised when Christian asks if he could step in as his substitute. Initially hesitant to help, Paul agrees to assist--and quickly finds himself the prime suspect when Christian is found murdered on the second day of class. This book is an homage to classic mysteries, especially those written by Agatha Christie. While the characters sometimes come across as caricatures, this adds to the classic feel of the story. The culinary world makes for a fun setting, and the red herrings and misdirects lead to a compelling whodunit. Fans of stories in which everyone is a suspect will enjoy this clever take on the locked-room mystery.

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Starred review from December 1, 2024
No good deed goes unpunished in this cutting-edge food-infused mystery. London-based chef Paul Delamare is depressed by the death of his lover, Marcus, who left him a charming cottage in Belgravia, and unhappy that one of Marcus' relatives is harassing him. But Paul's friend Julie, a food editor, gets him work at her magazine and keeps his spirits up. Paul has long been friends with Christian Wagner, a self-obsessed celebrity chef fallen on hard times. Because Christian has broken his arm, Paul--who's too nice for his own good--agrees to fill in for him with the intensive beginners' course he's supposed to lead at the posh Chester Square Cookery School, located in a mansion where Christian lives as well as teaches. The students are naturally disappointed that Christian isn't teaching, but the oddly mixed group members all seem to appreciate Paul's first lesson on knife techniques. On his way to work the next morning, Paul sees that the glass door to Christian's flat is smashed--and when he goes in to investigate, he finds Christian with his head nearly hacked off by the cleaver Paul had used in class the day before, and promptly faints. A Chester Square employee finds Paul passed out and calls the police. Since the students want the classes to continue, a shaky Paul carries on even though he senses that the police suspect him for his knife skills. Paul slowly learns more about the students and things he never knew about Christian. When one of his students dies, Paul realizes that he'd better uncover the killer before the police pin the murders on him--and his determined search to unravel the serpentine puzzle may be just what he needs to restart his life. There are many culinary mysteries, but this character-driven series opener is a cut above the rest.

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