To Kill a Cook

Akers’s (“Gilda Carr Tiny Mysteries” series) wild new novel stars 29-year-old food critic Bernice Black, whose tough-as-nails persona begins to crack after her magazine lays her off and her friend and mentor, chef Laurent Tirel, is murdered. Laurent is killed in an incredibly gruesome fashion, even for a gritty 1972 New York City: his head is severed and preserved in aspic. Bernice quickly determines that the NYPD lacks the culinary chops to properly investigate her friend’s death and sets off through the city’s seedy restaurant scene, occasionally with her fiancé’s children in tow, though she fears this could threaten her stepmother-of-the-year award. Narrator Navabi sparkles as the sharp-tongued, whip-smart but impulsive Bernice, expertly capturing her frantic search for clues, her futile efforts to stuff down her grief, and her growing attraction to a journalistic rival who happens to be a woman. Each of Akers’s well-drawn characters is marvelously portrayed, and Navabi delivers their antics and debauchery with perfect comedic timing.