Buffalo West Wing [Mass Market Paperback]

Buffalo West Wing is the fourth book in the White House Chef Mystery series, but it's the first I've read. Culinary cozies are a favorite of mine. I love the cooking, the menus, and the descriptions of the foods. Buffalo West Wing did not disappoint. It included three very different menus at the end of the book, each tying nicely different scenes in the book.

I particularly loved that Buffalo West Wing, and I'd assume the previous books in the series as well, mixes something most of us know at least the basics of (cooking) with a less familiar topic. Life in the White House, particularly behind the scenes, is something I never much considered and was delighted to find how truly interesting it is. The different procedures relating to security, especially how it relates to every aspect of the way a White House staffer does their job, is fascinating.

The mystery in Buffalo West Wing was puzzling and built to a unexpected and thrilling conclusion. Olivia Paras makes a wonderful amateur sleuth and has a valid reason to be involved in the mystery and its investigation, which is a big plus.

This was an exciting read. It kept me on the edge of my seat and often made me feel rather hungry. Buffalo West Wing has certainly peaked my interest and I'm anxious to go back and read the previous novels in the series.

A new incoming administration brings not only the stress of a new President, but a new staff, and even more terrifying for a chef (just watch Top Chef), a family with notoriously picky school-age children who aren't shy about voicing their opinions about their food.

On the first day that the White House welcomes the new President and his family Ollie notices an unauthorized delivery of the children's favorite meal, Buffalo Wings. Despite being called paranoid (how could anything dangerous get past all the security?) and disappointing both the children and the First Lady, Ollie refuses to serve the Wings and orders them to be thrown out. When it's discovered that the wings were indeed poisoned and led to an attempted hostage situation, Ollie is sworn to secrecy by the Secret Service which unfortunately leaves a poor impression on the First Family. The arrival of a new personal chef requested by the First Lady has Ollie fearing for her job and navigating the nasty political rumors surrounding her kitchen.

Who knew the politics of running the White House kitchen would be as complicated and precarious as the that in the Oval Office? With her ex-boyfriend running the investigation and a new interest arriving to help, Ollie's personal life is as tenuous as her professional one.

Hyzy's White House Chef mysteries continue to entertain as they not only provide complicated, politically-themed plots but also allow a fascinating glimpse into the complicated machinations that are involved in producing meals for both the president and the White House functions. Ollie herself has become much more confident in both her chef skills and her detection insights. I love these mysteries that are tasty, insightful, humorous, and entirely original. Here's to hoping for the next installment of this series that is both political and delectable.

This latest effort in the series is as delightful as it's predecessors.

These culinary mysteries are deftly plotted, often with events clearly inspired by real-life headlines. Executive chef Ollie is a wonderful protagonist -- smart, capable, and brave, but with an unfortunate tendency to wind up in the thick of events no matter her determination to do otherwise. The new First Family adds an interesting tension to the novel.

Much as I liked the book overall, I felt there were two minor failings.

Firstly, the story line regarding the new First Family's personal chef seemed not to be resolved; it just seemed to drop out. I suspect it will be picked up again in future volumes, but it would have been nice to have some sort of closure on it, however limited.

My other quibble is one that all the books in the series have shared. While the author has clearly researched the white house kitchen quite extensively (that behind-the-scenes quality is one of the most fascinating aspects of the these novels), she obviously has done far less to get a sense of the DC region outside the white house grounds. To some degree, that's natural, since most of the scenes are set within the white house. But to anyone who lives in the DC area, as I do, her lack of familiarity with the region is clear, and a little distracting. She has people zipping about the region -- often at rush hour -- and getting from place to place FAR more quickly than would ever happen. Our constant, grinding, traffic doesn't seem to be a factor in this fictional DC. (Would that that were true in real life!) Also, she repeatedly, in this novel, references an "Expressway." Context suggests she's almost certainly referring to the Beltway -- but in real-life, that's always referred to as such, or simply as I-495. She mentions a dirt frontage road off the expressway -- there are no such frontage roads. She has people driving through rural areas just a few minutes off the Beltway to the northwest -- there are virtually no rural areas close to the Beltway, since suburban sprawl wraps around the city in all directions, and especially on the northwest side. These things may sound trivial -- indeed, they ARE trivial -- but to someone familiar with the region, they're obvious, and tend to pull the reader out of the story.

The author has made a clear choice not to reference real places, outside of the White House and major landmarks -- all restaurants, bars, the local hospital, and so on all seem to be purely fictional -- and I accept that. But the portrait she paints of the region just rings false. And that's a shame, in what are otherwise terrific and delightful mysteries.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm eagerly awaiting the next book! And I recommend the series to anyone who likes the genre.

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