Read more
"
Dizzying . . . Audiences who wished the TV series The Bear had made room for Russian mobsters are in for a treat" Kirkus Reviews Starred Review Sagarine Pfister is a great cook but has been blacklisted by almost every restaurant in Chicago. She gets her chance at Louie's, a below-average restaurant, the only place that will give her a job.
Things change when she finds head chef Louie Ferrar dead in the walk-in freezer of his restaurant. But instead of closing the place down, the owner, Russian gang boss Anatoly Morzov, not only offers her Louie's job, but also the position as his personal chef. Sagarine agrees, and while she knows she's playing with fire, the chance to turn out extraordinary food at both the restaurant and for Morzov's extravagant private parties is just too tempting.
While the Chicago P.D. searches for Louie's killer, the FBI pressures Sagarine to inform on the gang. She has no choice, but things take another dangerous turn when she falls for one of Morzov's lieutenants. As Sagarine becomes more deeply involved with the gang and with her lover, the FBI's demands put her at increased risk of discovery. She has to make a decision about where her loyalties lie as she finds herself running for her life.
About the author
Wendy Church, PhD, is the author of the Shadows of Chicago mysteries. Knife Skills, the first in the series, received a Starred Review from Kirkus Reviews. Her debut novel, and the first in the Jesse O'Hara series, Murder on the Spanish Seas, was named by Booklist as a Top 10 Debut Mystery & Thriller of 2023. Wendy's also authored a variety of nonfiction works, including a PhD dissertation in bioresource engineering, a few textbooks and book chapters on global issues, and a number of inappropriately long Facebook posts about navigating gluten free pizza, and the relationship between yoga and Lord of the Rings. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her partner and several animals.
