As picturesque Longley, New York, gets ready to ring in the
holiday season, caterers Bernadette and Libby Simmons are
coping with their busiest time of year. If that’s not enough
to make them run around like crazed elves, they’re recruited
for a cooking show contest that pits celebrity chefs against
each other—and gives rise to murder...
Visions of sugar plums are most decidedly not dancing in
Libby’s head—especially since she and her sister are set to
appear on the Hortense Calabash Cooking Show. The premise is
to give six professional caterers random ingredients and
have them whip up a holiday meal. Libby knows that cooking
under pressure is not her forte—plus, the camera adds ten
pounds! She’ll look like a stuffed Christmas goose.
The icing on the fruitcake is that Hortense Calabash is a
grinch of year-round proportions. And the other contestants
are some of the most demanding—and difficult—chefs in the
business. But, as Bernie points out: the show will be great
(and, more importantly, free) publicity for their store, A
Little Taste of Heaven.
Bernie and Libby are thrown into the mix as arguments and
accusations simmer on the set. Holiday spirit has left the
building—and leaves a body—when Hortense, all dressed up as
Santa Claus for the opening sequence, is killed by an
exploding oven. It’s soon clear that Hortense’s demise was
far from accidental.
Now as Bernie and Libby stir up the past, they open up a
king-sized can of motives. Each contestant had a previous
run-in with the horrible Hortense, who engaged in blackmail,
rumor-mongering, and illicit affairs at every turn…but which
chef couldn’t stand the heat? With the holiday rush in full
swing and a killer still on the loose, the caterers of
Christmas present have no choice but to wrap up the mystery
before their geese are well and fully cooked…
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