Roux Morgue: A Mary Ryan Mystery

Mary Ryan Mystery #2

by Claire M. Johnson

Mary Ryan, San Francisco pastry chef, is happy to be teaching at her old alma mater. But before long, she realizes the teaching staff are at loggerheads with each other. Adding to her dismay, ex-lover and Homicide Detective O'Connor has enrolled as a student, claiming to be on disability from the San Francisco Police Department. In the middle of this turf war, Mary is ordered by dean Robert Benson to force Coolie Martin to leave the school or lose her job. But why would Coolie's father, a member of the Board of Directors, allow this to happen? Then when faculty and staff begin dying, Mary fears Coolie's forced exit might be part of a larger, more sinister plot. Acting on a hint from O'Connor, Mary is soon knee deep in murder, money-laundering, blackmail, professional sabotage, and computer hacking, and must rush to uncover the truth before the bodies start stacking up..

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook, Fiction, Mystery Thriller

223 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Claire M. Johnson graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in history.

Armed with a whip and a knife-roll, she worked as a pastry chef for eight years in San Francisco and Oakland during the height of the food revolution. The passion and frenzied pace characterizing the food scene on the West Coast during the 1980s is well documented in Ms. Johnson’s first novel Beat Until Stiff, for which she won the 1999 Malice Domestic Writers Grant.

Ms. Johnson stopped cooking professionally when her children were born and is currently an editor at U.C. Berkeley. She lives in Lafayette, California, with her husband, Mark, two children, Emma and Paul, and numerous animals. Eating at restaurants is still her favorite hobby, with her most severe criticism reserved for the dessert menu.

Series:
* Mary Ryan Mystery

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Highly readable yet uncompromisingly unlikable is the best description of Roux Morgue and its lead protagonist Mary Ryan. Mary Ryan is impossible to like, she is a whining, abrupt, arrogant, bullying malcontent who is aware of each and every one of her faults yet at 34-years-old feels the only things about her that need changing are her dating life, the color of her hair and her level of femininity.

The author goes overboard in her portrait of Mary, laying it on too thick for the reader to ever care about Mary or understand why anyone else would ever care for or about her. When someone is aware that they are a bully and as an adult makes no movement towards becoming a recognizable member of humanity rather than someone off to the side looking in scorn and judgment at all that pass by and through her life there is a problem. Mary seems to enjoy her role as bully, as if it were her calling and all the world needs her to beat and berate them into doing it her way. The author should spend more time fixing Mary’s overwhelming flaws and less time on rectifying her two years of celibacy.

There has been no growth between the first book in the series and the second, in fact, I believe Mary actually became worse, regressing with each page. Every action by another that she sees as negative or weak she herself is guilty of repeatedly. Where the author fails at primary characterization she succeeds in pacing, plot and secondary characters. I can’t recommend Mary but I do recommend the plot.

The plot is fast paced, interesting and exciting, so if plot is more important to you than character then this book will be everything you need. The plot is set in the food world and centers around money laundering, the mob, jealousy and of course, murder. I pieced together part of the solution but never quite had a grasp on the enormity. I kept reading for the answers wishing all along that someone would shove Mary in a closet for length of the book and maybe the next. The other negative, like the first book, were the constant stereotypical attributes assigned so easily to Italians and gay men.

Being tough doesn’t mean being an unbearable witch, sadly with this second installment the author seems to believe they are synonymous. I don’t know that I will read the third book in the series, mostly because I’m convinced that the author finds her character gusty and tough rather than unbearable and annoying. The plot would be a solid four but the lead characterization is a zero, the average of the two is my final rating.

[Patti · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Mary Ryan series by Claire M. Johnson, and I have to say I was disappointed. It's been at least 8 years since the first book, yet only 6 months or less has passed. I was hoping to read about a more together Mary Ryan, and unfortunately, the character has not really moved on. In this book, Mary has been out of work for awhile, and takes a position at her former culinary school, where murder occurs, followed closely by a second one. Mary's ex-husband's cop partner is enrolled at the school, who Mary is not-so-secretly pining for; why is he enrolled--for himself or is he undercover? Despite warnings, she proceeds to follow clues in this case, in the vein of many amateur detectives. I didn't see much character development from the first book to the second, and, due to my endless TBR list, I do not see myself continuing to read this series.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok, I don't know if I can really say I "read" this. I read the first 8 chapters and had to stop. I hated it. The main character annoyed me. The entire drama of the conflict at the cooking school seemed so contrived, childish and unbelievable, I just had no interest in going further. I couldn't figure out the point.

[Jaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main character was very unlikeable. She was whiny, sex-crazed, and thought her entire culinary world revolved around her. Her actions were selfish throughout most of the book. The final ending to the mystery was kind of a let down. The motive was, even though realistic, very lame. I'll try another in the series because I believe in second chances. But this series will only get one more chance.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The long awaited second installment in the Mary Ryan San Francisco Bay Area chef saga.

This time Mary is unable to find a chef job, a result of the incidents in Beat Until Stiff. She is now teaching at a culinary academy in San Francisco and trying to keep from taking sides in the new vs old chef feud. She fails and finds herself investigating the incidents with her ex husband cop partner.

One of the student's father wants his daughter out of the program but Mary feels she has a gift and uses the support of her uncle to fight the mobbed up father. The owner, Benson, is then investigated for money laundering through the school and Mary smuggles in help to get the goods.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was racing to this book after having finished "Beat Until Stiff" - more Mary Ryan, please! I love her as a protagonist. I love this woman who isn't a weakling, who gives as good as she gets, who's a realist, who can cook like a fiend, who has paid a high price to be the person she was meant to be but gets out of bed every day to keep on being that person.

I enjoyed Mary's Nancy Drew bit, as she called it, and I also liked that she wasn't trying to find out what happened in order to be right and get glory but in order to put the right people behind bars for what they'd done.

I did find this story a bit muddled at the climax. I was consuming this via audiobook, so perhaps that problem would've been resolved in a print version where I could flip back a couple pages and see if I'd really read that right. But it seemed to me that one of the good guys starts getting called by a different name in mid-finale and it really threw me off. (Who is Vincent, exactly?)

I hadn't known until I read a review just now that 10 years separated the publication of book 1 and book 2. It makes me as sad as the dean scraping off his dessert plate to think there might be a long wait for the next one. I am ravenous for another Mary Ryan story!!! Please, miss, may I have another?

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

*sigh*

I really really wanted this to be great. I read Beat Until Stiff, have read other things by her afterwards, and saw her become a really fantastic writer.

I did not like the main character at all, so that made it really difficult for me to get into the story. The book is full of a couple of my pet peeves - ideas and phrases (how many things in the city of San Francisco are just like a dowager?) being repeated over and over again lest we forget even the most basic of details, and character reactions being too over the top (gripping the phone so hard she broke fingernails, clutching keys so hard the ripped her palm open, sobering up immediately after nearly passing out from drinking).

Anyway, wanted to like it, couldn't get past the way it was written (rolling my eyes pulls me right out of a story), fortunately it had an intriguing enough plot that I made it through.

[Bridgette H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book two in the Mary Ryan series which picks up a few months after the events of "Beat Until Stiff". After leaving American Fair, the high-end restaurant Mary spent all her waking hours making pastry in, she has decided to return to her alma mater to teach and reinvigorate the love for her craft. Well, like every other amateur sleuth in mystery fiction, Mary is a body magnet...and she doesn't take it lightly; sticking her nose in EVERYWHERE. What the hell: she's divorced and has no life so why not? There are still 2 over-protective cops haranguing her over every misstep and, newly added elements of inter-generational power struggles among her fellow chefs, water fights, possible poisonings, baby daddies, crystal goblets, and a newly dusted off libido on Mary's part. Another light murder mystery for those, like me, who enjoyed the first book.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roux Morgue by Claire M. Johnson is a mystery book. My reason for choosing this was because I find mystery books interesting and well I got a good recommendation about it. The protagonist of the book is Mary Ryan. The antagonist is William Martin. A supporting character is O' Conner and Mellisa Martin. The conflict is man vs. man. It is between Mary and Mr. Martin. The setting takes place in the city and in the restaurant where Mary works. The theme of this book is the you should never regret anything even if it bad. The writing style of the author is literary first person point of view. I liked the book because it was a thriller and the author keeps you guessing. over all its an awesome book to read and i highly recommend it to you!!!

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johnson's work is authentic, with the true voice of experience. Just like Mary, Johnson went through The California Culinary Academy (not the l'ecole of Roux Morgue) in the early 80's and saw the culinary conflicts between the classically trained chefs of French cuisine and the great Swiss hotels and the upstart California chefs. She's got stories about some of those big named people that I won't repeat here!

If you're looking for a nice culinary cozy, repleat with recipes and cute, don't read Claire Johnson. Instead, think Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential or Gordon Ramsay's angry tirades and you'll be right on. www.rouxmorgue.com

[Paddy · Rating 1 out of 5]

In the Only Because I Wanted an Audio Book at My Library Category, I started listening to this and am shaking my head in wonder. Ok, I can see how someone could write poorly, but to be published except by vanity press? And can anyone would finish this book? Is it not already gilding the lily to write, "Something has to happen by this weekend or else,"? But the whining, self-loathing "heroine," Mary Ryan, has to add, "That sounded ominous." As when I finished the last Maisie Dobbs book, I want to retreat to an old Nancy Drew mystery.

[Nidofito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!! Lots of yummy UST going on in this book. The story itself was pretty good too. The only thing I feel is that in the end, Mary seems to have gotten the short end of the stick. Nothing really changed for her. I hope, some years later, she would get her HEA ending with a husband who is as fierce as her and is not afraid to fight for her, a guilt-free conscience, a child (although she says there is no hope for it) and most importantly, working as a pastry chef at a place that doesn't take up 14 hours of her day from her!!!!

[Michele · Rating 1 out of 5]

This might have gotten a better raring if the main character was not so hard to like. I found her personality fairly unpleasant. It may be the author thought featuring her flaws & failings might make her appeal to readers but it certainly didn't work that way for me. Her out-of-control anger, refusal to do laundry & alcoholic binging were not endearing characteristics, quite the contrary.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I waited a long time to read this follow up in the Pastry Chef mysteries. I really liked it and I think Mary is a big personality with a lot of sass. There was a lot of sleeping around for this needy sleuth, but I loved the ending and hope she gets what she's looking for. I hope Claire Johnson picks this series back up.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a ok murder mystery that takes place at a cooking school. The lead character, Mary Ryan has been hired to teach at the school she attended years earlier. She meets up with some of her favorite teachers and some old enemies.

Her marriage has ended and she lost her job at a fancy restaurant. This is her chance to get her life going again, but there is that murder.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well constructed sequel to Beat Until Stiff that kept me turning pages. The paperback edition suffers from a distracting lack of copy editing. As a San Francisco area resident I appreciated the attention to geographic detail. A very intriguing heroine. If more are coming I will definitely read them.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pastry chef helps solve murders. Culinary school location. Interesting commentary on aspects of the life of a chef while developing the story line. Enjoyable reading. A little too much space was spent on the main character's sexual frustration than I believe was necessary to the story, but it was relevant to eventual development of parts of the story line.

[Eileen · Rating 2 out of 5]

So-so. I liked the first book better. Mary, the chef, finds herself in yet another series of dead bodies (who would have thought that baking could be so dangerous). She says, "note to self..." much too often. I found her sharp and snarky in the first book, but in this one she is judgmental, nosy and self-pitying.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the story line and the character interaction. It was not as predictable as these types of stories tend to be. Probably even more fun to those that love pastry cooking ( which I am not)
I may have to see if I can find the first book in the series......

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like most gay men she worked with he was HIV positive??? In what parallel universe was this book written? I unfortunately had to give this book up in disgust upon reading that line. Gross generalization and stereotypes abound in this woman's work.

[Amy Paget · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like many, I am interested in cooking mysteries because I like to eat! and I have a son who is planning on attending culinary school. Roux Morgue is the second in a series and I enjoy the wit of the lead character, Mary Ryan. Light summer reading

[Michelle Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked Claire, from the first novel. It this mystery was all over the place. It was also a bit far fetched.

I would have read another, in his series to see if they improved but there isn't anymore.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not fond of this one. Disappointing. Have to agree with Allison. The "heroine" is not someone I would care to know.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

since i love to read this was a very quick read. i am taking classes to learn to be a chef!!!!!this book was a fun read

[Lois Baron · Rating 1 out of 5]

What was the writer thinking, having a love interest who is married, Catholic, with kids?? Ugh!

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A murder mystery that had me laughing out loud. What a great combination!

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book! A fast simple read/listen. I was not thrilled by the narrator. Accurate for the industry!!!

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

read

[Hermien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable. I was going to give it four stars but the ending was a bit abrupt.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot about the food industry