*Chef Henry is one of the guest speakers in luxury spa hotel Larkspur and Seattle detective Maggie's police boss forces her to use some of her long-extant leave to accept a free ticket he offers. He notices culinary reporter Kathleen falling to her death in a hot-tub, but the corpse is missing, so Maggie must gradually agree it's probably homicide and they investigate informally. Kathleen made many enemies attending the resort, like one adulterer she virtually ruined by wrecking his marriage and lush actress Danielle, was about to expose a couple's secret division of talents and had an affair. The sleuths must check the alibis and Henry's gastronomic nose spots a toxic murder when the embroiled hotel manager Evelyn has a fatal crisis, but that MO also puts them on the trail of a root crime years ago in England, linked to the resort's own chef and his wife.
—KGF Vissers