Death by Rhubarb (Mass Market Paperback)

1. The liberal use of the F* word by both the main character and other's in the story.

2. The main character - 4 time divorced - 1 widowed - Heaven Lee, who is about 45 - sleeping with a 25 year old.

3. Heaven Lee - A former stripper and disbarred lawyer who says she was disbarred for "doing what all lawyers do, putting together a drug deal for their clients." I'm sure there is a story behind that but it's not told in this book and I think I think it should have been, because I don't think it casts Heaven in a good light.

It's Open-mike night at Cafe Heaven. Unfortunately, the evening ends early when lawyer, Tasha Arnold drops dead. Since Tasha is dating and sleeping with two of Heaven's ex-husbands and dies of poisoning after eating dinner at the Cafe, Heaven becomes the top suspect.

The problems with this book starts with the fact that I don't like Heaven Lee. There are so many characters in the book, but they are so undefined that I had a hard time following who they were, and what they were doing.

I think the only people that I got to know were Chris, who works at the restaurant and was the victim of gay-bashing hate crime in the past. Murray - a former New York City Crime reporter and Sandy - a lawyer who is one of Heaven's ex-husbands.

All of the other characters, I thought were so lacking in personality that they don't really stick out.

Then there's the recipes. They are flopped right in the middle of the pages. The story just stops for a recipe and then continues after the recipe. Usually on the same page as the recipe. (I'm sure this is an editing problem and not the author's, but it is irritating.) And I can honestly say I would never try any of these. For one thing, I don't even know what a Jicama is or what wheatberries are or where to find them.

However, the mystery was and characters were just interesting enough that I will read the second book. I know a lot of mystery series I read seem to have problems with their first book and don't really hit their rhythm until the 3rd or 4th book.

With the character's I enjoyed and the mystery which was ok, and a nice surprise killer are enough that I want to go onto the next book and hope for improvements in the future.

I found nothing at all to like about Heaven...she just seemed to come through as some kind of low-life without any redeeming qualities. The supporting cast is just that...you don't get to know a thing about them. Plus, there were so many supporting characters with common/similar names (Chris, Joe, Hank, Sam, Sal, Sol) that I had trouble keeping them all straight. I also found the recipes right in the middle of the text to be annoying.

I've already bought the next two books in the series, so I'll read them...whether I continue or not after that is still up in the air.