** spoiler alert **
I bought this for mom while she was recovering from her knee replacement since she likes The Morning Show. I wasn't expecting too much. Good thing since I got even less than I bargained for. This was one of those times that you feel they paid off big name mystery writers to gush over this because it had nothing in it that they said it did. It wasn't thrilling or funny (and funny is mentioned in every review). The point of view character, Billy Blessing, is sarcastic but not even really sarcastically funny.

Granted, a good chunk of my displeasure with this stems from the fact it's the type of amateur detective trope I dislike the most. I can enjoy amateur detectives when they're related to a real cop or are at least good friends with the local detectives. However when the local detectives are absolute idiots, refusing to listen and are out to get the amateur detective at every turn, I just roll my eyes and put the book aside. This was one of those books.

Blessing is a chef, has his own restaurant, his own cooking show and works for Wake Up America (and is a thinly disguised Al Roker but that's okay. I didn't mind that). Rudy, his producer, wants him to do a knock off of foodnetwork's next star show but with no talents. Then after an innocent but misunderstood conversation with Gin, another coworker, leads to her negotiating a 15 million dollar contract, Rudy and Billy are at loggerheads until Rudy ends up dead poisoned by Billy's coq au vin.

This potentially could be an exciting mystery and if you don't mind stupid cops you might even like this. The detectives however refuse to even look at other suspects and everything hinges on people either misunderstanding each other or keeping stupid secrets (another drama creating trope I hate). I mean if someone cold cocked you and demanded something from the dead guy's place wouldn't you report it? Wouldn't you mention that the victim was sleeping with a 17 year old while cheating on his fiancé just to give the cops other suspects? Yeah, apparently not. This isn't badly written from a technical standpoint but I found it unbelievable, unfunny and I won't be looking for the next book in the series.