Beluga Stein is taking a cooking class and it’s a real killer.
Welcome to one of the March 21st stops on the blog tour for Mean Cuisine by Wendy W. Web with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for more reviews and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.
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About the Book
Mean Cuisine
The Beluga Stein Mysteries Book Two
by Wendy W. Webb
Published 20 January 2025
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
Genre: Supernatural Murder Mystery
Page Count: 224
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
Beluga Stein is taking a cooking class and it’s a real killer. This time she’s traded her signature loud muumuus for ill-fitting chef attire, including a toque the size of her ego.
A well-liked chef is found dead and it’s up to Beluga and her feline familiar, Planchette, to investigate. There’s no recipe to follow, only the hope that her erratic psychic ability will hit the spot. Is a supernatural entity stirring up trouble, or something far more dangerous?
Beluga and Planchette can’t stand the heat, but there’s no way out of this kitchen while murder is the main dish.
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Excerpt
Beluga Stein’s Diary
Such a day.
And while Chef Pernod tried mightily to restore order with an impromptu lecture on the differences between Grande, Classic and Nouvelle cuisines, I’m afraid the distinctions were lost when the frozen body was wheeled past us to the waiting ambulance.
The sight of such a spectacle took a toll on the chef as well, I should add. Fortunately for me there was no mention of Planchette in the kitchen, but for the rest of us the chef’s well-practiced lecture took a sudden nosedive into a stream-of-consciousness series of French words. I think I heard her say that a traditional kitchen brigade had positions with names sounding something like “poisoner,” which is rather ominous if you ask me, and “chefs who party,” which might warrant further investigation if things start to get dull. Or one finds herself in immediate need of hors d’oeuvres and a tropical cocktail.
My Review
My Rating: 4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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I was granted complimentary access to Mean Cuisine by Wendy W. Webb as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Goddess Fish Promotions. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
I hadn’t read the first book in the series yet (and still haven’t at the time of writing this review) when I saw the call to review this one. The cat on the cover, presumably Planchette, beckoned me to read the synopsis and I had to find out where this story was going to go! I’m a huge fan of cozy and paranormal mysteries, and this sounded cute, so I was ready!
It certainly is cute, and although I’m sure reading the series in order is probably best, I was able to follow and enjoy this second installment without reading the first. The mystery was fun, the characters were likeable, and it made for an easy, relaxing read. I could absolutely do with more from Beluga and Planchette! With that said, it could have been shorter. The storyline meandered a bit in a way that didn’t feel particularly productive nor intentionally misleading.
If you like cats, cooking, and mysteries, give this a try!
About the Author
Wendy W Webb (aka one of the many Wendy Webbs) has published dark fantasy short stories and novels, co-edited anthologies, and has had productions of stage and radio plays. After a hiatus as a doctoral student of emergency management and as a disaster responder, she welcomed the return to fiction with The Wild Rose Press writing the gothic Widow’s Walk, and two updated books in the Beluga Stein supernatural-humor-murder mystery series, Bee Movie and Mean Cuisine. Sunbury Press under the Milford House imprint published the paranormal, travel, “memoir,” Eye of the Gargoyle. She adores her husband; two dogs, one of which turns on iTunes whenever Wendy leaves her office; dry red wine; theatre; and travel as long as she doesn’t see anymore ghosts!
Giveaway Alert!
Wendy will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
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Thank you so much for featuring and reviewing MEAN CUISINE.