Just a couple of weeks after the events of If You Can't Stand The Heat, Austin, TX health inspector Poppy Markham is inspecting a new restaurant under construction that has a rather macabre concept. The new eatery, which is called Capital Punishment, has the look and feel of a penitentiary (by design, that is, complete with electric chair) with the menu consisting of "last meals" of famous death-row inmates. With Capital Punishment weeks away from opening and a couple of unresolved issues, Poppy returns to the restaurant only to find the corpse of one of the co-owners, a former high-school football star--hanged from a catwalk in the dining room! Soon Poppy finds herself delving into the throes of this mystery. Whether it was the victim's wife or his business partners including his twin brother (all one-time high school classmates), one thing Poppy feels certain--this was no suicide (as someone tried to make it appear).

Light fun read with a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the restaurant industry. Memorable characters include her father, Mitch (whose restaurant Poppy had left to become a health inspector); her materialistic stepmother Nina; her self-important stepsister Ursula; her micro-managing boss, Olive; and Poppy's gay next-door neighbors whom she calls "John With" and "John Without" (hair, that is). And just when things may be on the mend with Poppy and her ex-boyfriend, food critic Jamie Sherwood, her former lover Drew reappears after several years. All in all an enjoyable read. I was glad, though, that I had read Poppy's first "culinary cop" mystery; there's numerous references made to the events of that first book.