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G.P. Putnam's Sons
February 2026
On Sale: February 3, 2026
352 pages
ISBN: B0FBHNJQDK
EAN: 9798217044863
Kindle: B0F7G4K19M
Hardcover / e-Book
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Mystery Cozy | Mystery Culinary | Fantasy Urban
Tender at the Bone meets Finlay Donovan is Killing It in this hilarious, fast-paced mystery about a feisty food critic in 1970s NY who finds her chef friend murdered and realizes she might be the only one to find the killer.
Nobody in Manhattan eats better than Bernice Black. It’s 1972, and she is the city’s busiest restaurant critic, juggling her fiance and his two young sons with demands of fine dining. Bernice talks fast, walks faster, has a razor-sharp wit and no patience for anything--or anyone--that gets in her way.
When she stops by the famed restaurant of her favorite chef and mentor, Laurent Tirel, early one morning, she stumbles across a horrific scene in the kitchen: Laurent's severed head, perfectly preserved in a flawless mold of jellied aspic.
Her meeting with the cops assigned to the case proves only one thing–they know nothing about food or the seedy underworld that BB Black has made her home. With layoffs looming, Bernice makes the gamble of her career—she promises her editor she can catch Laurent’s killer before the week is out.
To Kill a Cook is a delicious, witty, fast-paced mystery with a lovable, unforgettable protagonist at it center.
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