Serving Up Murder



Death on a Platter [by] Elaine Viets

[New York] Obsidian [2011]

9780451235244; $7.99

Josie Marcus is a “mystery shopper.”  She is assigned by her boss to visit places of business and evaluate their services, their products, and other aspects of their trade.  This time Josie is tasked with visiting a number of restaurants and food emporia in order to review their food for a tour group that wants to sample the representative foods of the city of Saint Louis, where she lives.  These items alternately thrill and repulse Josie.  The thrilling ones are gooey butter cake, toasted ravioli, St. Louis’ take on pizza, and chocolate; the ones that make Josie want to run for the hills are pig ears and snout sandwiches and fried brain sandwiches.  But Josie bravely collects willing friends and relatives to accompany her as she sallies forth to find the treats she thinks the foodie tour would like.  After all, “Who doesn’t like to eat?”

One stop on the mystery shopping tour is the famous toasted ravioli at Tillie's off the Hill, which is owned by her mother Jane's childhood friend, Tillie. The food is to die for, a wonderful concoction of handmade raviolis, breaded and fried, dipped in marinara sauce, and sprinkled with grated cheese.  Josie and Jane go for the treat, and Josie gets to meet her mother’s friend and her daughter Lorena.  Tillie also points out a developer’s scout, Desmond, who is kind of dating her Lorena, but mostly waiting for Tillie to cave in to his offer for her property in order to build a casino.  Unfortunately, they get a front-row seat as Tillie confronts a problem patron, Clay and his girlfriend Gemma.  Clay is drunk, yelling and swearing and beating up on the claw machine in the bar, which he has plunked money into without getting a prize.  Tillie finally call 911 and the cops come to carry Clay off.  They suggest that Tillie rehire her old chef, Jeff, who would scare Clay away.

Josie realizes that she can’t write up this experience of the restaurant for the tour people to read, so she calls up her best friend Alyce and invites her to go to the restaurant with her the next day, when she can get a fresh new look at the restaurant.  The food is fabulous, and Josie hopes that she can report a good experience to her boss, but her heart sinks when she sees that Clay and Gemma are also there.  Again, there is a scene.  Tillie calls Henrietta, Clay’s wife to take him home.  

Chef Jeff also drops by to try to get his old job back.    He suggests Clay eat something, so Clay calls for the specialty, T-ravs.  Tillie makes him some, but he complains that the sauce isn’t spicy enough.  She takes it back to spice it up, bringing back a big bowl of red sauce, to which she had added a lot of horseradish, seeing a chance that she might be able to get rid of clay once-and-for-all.  Clay shrieks that his mouth is burning and then he falls to the floor, making strangling noises.  Both Gemma and Henrietta, who has arrived and is sitting in the back of the room, watching, come forward to accuse Tillie of poisoning Clay.  The paramedics and the police arrive, to take Clay to the hospital and to question all of the witnesses, deep into the night.

Clay dies.  Tillie is arrested for his death.  It turns out that the cause of death was castor beans, which are deadly, and grow wild all over Missouri, including in the vacant lot next door to Tillie’s.  Jane is devastated, and urges her daughter to try to find out what happened.  Josie can hardly argue with her mother, who owns the building she’s living in at a reduced rent, and who provides free babysitting.  Her attractive veterinarian boyfriend Ted comes to visit and helps Josie’s daughter Amelia, who is practicing with variations of her name and asks to be called variously “Mel” and “A.”  Both he and Josie’s mother teach “Mel” to cook, and Ted is very supportive of “A”’s plans to become a dog-walker.  Ted also takes Josie for her BBQ pig ears and fried brains sandwiches. 

Josie gathers clues at Gemma’s Junktique, where Clay’s girlfriend sells dusty junk and tchochkes, and at Clay’s funeral, where Gemma is rudely turned away.  Josie gets a bee in her bonnet about a possible source of castor beans, and visits Gemma’s again, only to discover that the door is open and Gemma’s head bashed in.  There is a riveting scene in which Josie comes face-to-face with danger, once again at Tillie’s, before this exciting tale is brought to an end and all of the loose ends gathered up, some of them quite nicely.

Author Viets brings a light touch and good humor to this book, as well as useful notes and shopping tips on the food mentioned.  A fun read, with interesting and quirky characters, and a lovable, relatable central family.  Cleverly plotted – a fun weekend read.  Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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Book supplied by my Public Library.

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