Book Review: No Reservations Required

Reviewed By: Pat Reid - RAM

No Reservations Required     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Ellen Hart
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Culinary
Series: Sophie Greenway # 8
Ballantine Books, 2005, 299 pps

Sophie Greenway is the owner-manager of the Maxfield Plaza in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is also the restaurant critic for the Minneapolis Times Register. Sophie is married to Bram Baldric who is a radio talk-show host.

Sophie’s boss and the owner and publisher of the Minneapolis Times Register, Bob Fabian, is killed on the anniversary of his wife Valerie’s death. To make things even more complicated Ken Loy who was driving the vehicle that hit Valerie’s car and contributed to the wreck that took Valerie’s life is also shot and killed on that same night.

To complicate matters even more Bob Fabian placed a 911 call the very same night and requested the police to go the scene of Loy’s shooting.

Add to all this Phil Banks, Bob’s brother-in-law, well known for his temper that is suing Loy and Andy Gladstone, Bob’s half brother, who stands to inherit everything from Bob and the story becomes even more complicated.

I think what turned me off on this book and caused me to give a lower rating than I normally would is the way Sophie handles Bram’s spoiled rotten daughter, Margie Baldric, and lets her walk all over her even though Sophie is putting a roof over her head. Bram seems to just simply ignore all Margie’s ploys to cause problems in the marriage and Sophie does nothing. Then there is Nathan Buckridge, Sophie’s old boy friend, who is obviously stalking Sophie but a teen-age girl could handle the situation better than Sophie does. This is a fairly good mystery but some of the attitudes of the characters in the book totally turned me off.

Pat Reid - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Pat Reid - RAM