Kale to the Queen
A Kensington Palace Chef Mystery
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
The first installment in a “charming” cozy mystery series set at Kensington Palace and starring “a gutsy heroine”—a perfect read for foodies and royal fanatics (Kirkus Reviews)!
The new, American-born chef to the British royal family must struggle to ‘keep calm and carry on’ when a body turns up in the royal gardens . . .
Chef Carrie Ann Cole is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime—an assignment as the new Personal Chef to the Royal Family at Kensington Palace. But no sooner has Carrie Ann touched down across the pond and donned her apron than a dead body crops up beneath the royal kale beds.
With one assistant dead and the other soon under suspicion for his murder, Carrie Ann is scrambling to keep her kitchen up and running. Not to mention she gets off to an immediate bad start with the tempestuous Royal Chef Butterbottom, who has a bitter taste in his mouth since the prestigious position in the Royal Family's kitchen was given to an "over-privileged, under-educated American chef."
But the Royal Family's appetites wait for no one, and Carrie Ann must solve the murder and still get supper on the table on time—even with the annoyingly handsome Head of Security Ian Gordon tracking her every move like an MI6 agent.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hampton's debut mystery gets kitchen ego spot-on. No matter that jet-lagged Midwesterner Carrie Ann Cole, the new family chef for the young duke and duchess of Cambridge, finds her assistant, Francis Deems, "toes up" under the kale bed on morning one at Kensington Palace. And that security chief Ian Gordon imperiously moves Carrie Ann's operation into the kitchen of palace culinary top banana, anti-American Chef Butterbottom. Driven, disciplined Carrie Ann just washes her hands and prepares the royals an organic, locally sourced breakfast, on time complete with fresh blueberry ginger scones. Hampton knows British food, but her menu is heavy on red herrings sauced in strained satire. Foodie puns and dubious characteristics include round-nosed Inspector Garrote and "swarthy" (meaning dangerous, as in the Hardy Boys?) prep cook George Rabe, who bitterly quits on his second day. Desserts more suitable to a romance punctuate the mains: gardener Jasper Fedman is "shockingly handsome"; "Greek god" Ian emanates "spicy cologne and warm male." Pass the vinegar, please.
