GETTING SKINNY by Monique Domovitch

Publisher: Carina Press

Date published: 2/4/2013

ISBN: 978-14268-9503-6

Cozy Mystery

E-book

Reviewed by Helen

Weblink: http://ebooks.carinapress.com/B772FC96-FE7D-443A-856D-6D68A66FB891/10/134/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID=D7DAEDC3-9BF4-4E5F-80C7-D53EE08C0F87

Obtained via publisher

 

Nicky Landry is a chef who’s finally opened her very own restaurant with her friend Toni. Together they’ve worked incredibly hard to offer an eclectic atmosphere and delicious food.

As the book opens Nicky’s planning a very special dinner party at the restaurant for her boyfriend Rob, a doctor, and his friends. She overheard him talking about a ring, and is convinced he’s going to propose to her at the party. Instead, she finds out he’s cheating on her, and that his new girlfriend is also at the party.

Nicky orders him out of her house and when she arrives home many hours later she finds him still there. Dead. With her best knife in his chest.

Predictably the police think she’s the murderer, so she and her friends determine to find the real culprit to clear her name.

The basic outline of the story doesn’t sound much different from dozens of other stories, but the characters, twists and turns of the plot, and the humor make this long book well worth reading. For example, the person who may be the murderer is described as very skinny. Nicky wants to get (catch) that person. She’s also put on weight while testing recipes for the restaurant. She wants to lose weight (get skinny). And finally, the restaurant itself is called Skinny’s. There are other examples in the book where something strikes a chord on one level, then later the same thing strikes another chord at a deeper level, or simply a different level, which is very rewarding for the reader.

Obviously in such a long book there’s going to be a lot of characters. Some of them are just quick sketches, but many of them are very real, alive and worth meeting—Toni, her best friend, Kim, the clingy wanna-be friend, Jackie Chan her adored Yorkshire terrier, the weird person next door, the staff at the restaurant and more.

There are half a dozen places where Rob is inexplicably called Brad. I spent a while doing a find and search for this character before I realized it was a typo. Ms. Domovitch writes a fun, engaging, fascinating story with amazing characters. I’ll be looking for more books from her.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.