Val Deniston moved in with her grandfather after a disastrous relationship and losing her job. Luckily, she found a new one with running the café at a local fitness club. Her grandfather is using Val's skills with cooking to launch his own career as the Codger Cook writing for the local newspaper, using only five ingredients, which means Val has been modifying her recipes. But she's learned not to let him in the kitchen due to the fact he can't cook.

One night he decides to give a dinner party, inviting his lady friend Lillian and several other people, and wants to put a certain guest named Scott on the hot seat, because he thinks Scott bilked his friend out of twenty thousand dollars. So Val cooks two different chowders and then hides in the butler's pantry while cooking if someone enters the kitchen. But the party doesn't go the way it should, and when Val senses trouble, she uses a back exit to run to the front of the house, and finds that Scott's taken ill...and later dies. Everyone thinks it was Granddad who killed Scott, and Val decides to involve herself and find the killer, since she thinks the police are only focusing on her Granddad.

But to make things worse, her semi-boyfriend Gunnar's ex-fiancée Petra shows up, and suddenly things start going south for Val at her job, and it just gets worse. Unless she can prove Petra had something to do with it, she might lose her job. Now Val finds herself in the middle of two things causing grief, and both need to be figured out or Granddad will be in jail and she'll be out of a job...

This is the second book in the series, and I enjoyed the first, but found that this book still had the same problems. Gunnar seems a bit self-centered (and dull), and only comes around when it's convenient for him; while I get that he likes Val, he never acts like a boyfriend toward her. While I hope this doesn't turn into a love triangle, Val's decision not to trust good-looking me is ridiculous. If she stays with Gunnar, I sure hope he treats her better. As far as her granddad goes, I would like to see him also treat her better. He's using her for her recipes and ability to cook, but doesn't give her any of the credit. Val is good as a doormat.

As far as the mystery goes, it was certainly one that needed to be unraveled. There were plenty of threads that became twisted together, and taking each one apart not only took time, it took effort on Val's part and several other people to help her see which thread was the one that led to death. It was interesting and enjoyable; and when we got to the end it all came together nicely, and gave us a murderer who had no remorse over what was done, which is the worst kind to come across. I will read the next in the series, and there are also some nice recipes in the back of the book. Recommended. ( )