Simmering Secrets
(2026)(A book in the Reluctant Food Columnist Mystery series)
A novel by Ang Pompano
When celebrity chef Connie Langston announces she's moving her prestigious culinary academy from Connecticut to New York, she ignites a firestorm of controversy. Before the evening is over, she's dead.
Everyone assumes it was a tragic heart attack. But food columnist Quincy Lazzaro suspects it was murder.
By day, Quincy secretly writes the wildly popular Cooking with Betty food column with the help of his irrepressible octogenarian neighbor, Mary Ticarelli. With his loyal cocker mix, Dexter, never far from his side, Quincy wants more than recipes and restaurant reviews. Determined to reinvent himself as an investigative journalist, he starts asking questions that make powerful people increasingly uncomfortable.
His girlfriend, Detective Nina Esteves, wishes he'd leave murder investigations to the police. Quincy has no intention of listening.
As he digs deeper into Connie's death, Quincy uncovers simmering rivalries, hidden motives, and dangerous secrets surrounding the academy's future. When a second murder proves Connie's death was anything but natural, Quincy and Nina race to catch the killer, each following a very different path.
In the high stakes world of fine dining, where the rich and privileged guard their reputations as fiercely as their fortunes, some secrets are worth killing for.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Everyone assumes it was a tragic heart attack. But food columnist Quincy Lazzaro suspects it was murder.
By day, Quincy secretly writes the wildly popular Cooking with Betty food column with the help of his irrepressible octogenarian neighbor, Mary Ticarelli. With his loyal cocker mix, Dexter, never far from his side, Quincy wants more than recipes and restaurant reviews. Determined to reinvent himself as an investigative journalist, he starts asking questions that make powerful people increasingly uncomfortable.
His girlfriend, Detective Nina Esteves, wishes he'd leave murder investigations to the police. Quincy has no intention of listening.
As he digs deeper into Connie's death, Quincy uncovers simmering rivalries, hidden motives, and dangerous secrets surrounding the academy's future. When a second murder proves Connie's death was anything but natural, Quincy and Nina race to catch the killer, each following a very different path.
In the high stakes world of fine dining, where the rich and privileged guard their reputations as fiercely as their fortunes, some secrets are worth killing for.
Genre: Cozy Mystery