Add to the burgeoning cohort of culinary-themed mysteries Phyllis Richman's Murder on the Gravy Train, which provides a second outing for her restaurant reviewer-sleuth, Chas (née Charlotte Sue) Wheatley.

Richman, the restaurant reviewer for The Washington Post, is ideally suited to supply a vivid glimpse of the terrain where big-city culinary and newspaper worlds intersect, and offers a tempting brew of the pleasures and politics of both. Added to the mix is a tale of blackmail, extortion, spying, corruption, and (let's not forget) murder--several times over.

When the chef at one of Washington's most popular new restaurants disappears, Wheatley's curiosity is piqued. No one is forthcoming about his whereabouts, and, almost worse, the restaurant's food, minus the chef, is terribly off. Wheatley takes it upon herself to track down the chef and discovers a widening pool of foul play. In her search, we learn about the illicit side of the restaurant business (readers will think twice about ordering bottled water when they dine out next), and the often-nasty machinations of newsroom life (spying and story thievery). We are also exposed to the bureaucratic yet gruesome grind of a typical homicide department (decayed bodies without ID, for example).

Richman's narrative reads like a semi-autobiographical roman à clef: culinary insiders, real and would-be, will delight in her up-front-and-personal food-world asides. In fact, anyone who enjoys food and foul play--a heady combination--should relish this tale of both, nicely spun out by an author of appetite and imagination. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
Washington, D.C., restaurant reviewer Chas Wheatley (The Butter Did It) returns in this eye-opening expos? of price-gouging in the dining industry. After a disastrous blind date with a waiter who hints that he knows secrets about restaurant corruption, Chas's luck turns when her editor offers her a syndicated food column. Inspired by her date, she plans her inaugural piece as an investigation of the nefarious practices some restaurants use to bilk their customers. What she uncovers will make readers who regularly dine out more cautious: the scams range from well-publicized credit card ploys to little-known pressure tactics taught to waiters during special classes. As she goes about collecting information, Chas hears that a chef whose dishes she admires has been fired for beating up a female co-worker. Soon afterward, the woman's body is found in the Tidal Basin, and Chas's friend, homicide detective Homer Jones, takes up the case, arresting the chef for murder. Chas isn't convinced he's guilty, however, especially when she realizes that the morgue also holds the body of her blind dateAthe waiter had been strangled and left without ID. Despite the distractions of her brief romance with a younger man and her dinners with Homer and his girlfriend, Chas finds time to sleuth to a successful conclusion. Blending mouth-watering descriptions of foods galore, subtle clues and a serious look at the responsibilities of restaurants, Richman whips up a frothy confection that, despite a bit of stiff writing here and there, should satiate most connoisseurs of food-oriented crime. Agent, Bob Barnett. Author tour. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Don't let the cutesy title fool you into thinking this is another in a long line of fluffy culinary mysteries. Murder on the Gravy Train is set in Washington, DC, and the sleuth is the restaurant critic for the Washington Examiner. Chas Wheatley is a slightly overweight, middle-aged divorce whose brush with a blind date culled from a personal column lands her in the midst of a series of murders centered around a popular Washington restaurant. When she discovers the cigar lounge is bugged and an attempt is made on her life, Chas enlists the help of her friends a homicide investigator, another reporter, her daughter, and a handsome (and younger!) Lebanese taxi driver to uncover the identities of the blackmailers/murderers. What sets this story apart are the wonderful atmosphere and background descriptions of the mechanics of being a big-time critic and the professional jealousy rampant in any newsroom, as well as the underside of the restaurant biz. Susan O'Malley's smooth, involving narration is a big plus, and Blackstone is to be commended for using the book's colorful eye-catching cover art on its plastic cassette holder. Enthusiastically recommended for all libraries. Barbara Perkins, Irving P.L., TX Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
This mystery (written by the restaurant critic of the WASHINGTON POST) follows the attempts of a food critic (for a fictitious Washington paper) to play investigative reporter and solve two murders linked to a new restaurant in town. What starts as an effort to clear a popular chef soon uncovers activities with ramifications that reach far beyond food and drink. Susan O'Malley is an enthusiastic narrator who finds a tone that reflects the blend of na•vetŽ and sophistication of her main character. She brings just as much interest and enthusiasm to the descriptions of food as she brings to the intrigue that runs through the story. Her characterizations of the supporting characters also add interest and dimension to the reading. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Kirkus Reviews
Even though her boyfriend Dave Zeeger, ace investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner, has been so morose over repeatedly getting scooped by a rising twinkie that Chas Wheatley has asked him for a trial separation, things are looking up for Chas. Her boss Bull Stannard has announced the syndication of Chas's restaurant-review column and green-lighted a new series that will give her the freedom to review restaurants outside D.C.and enable her to report on the sleazy service and marketing practices diners rarely see (though Washington Post restaurant reviewer Richman knows their every last detail). Chas's life would be just about perfect, in fact, if only (1) Dave would come crawling back to her, (2) somebody who feels threatened by the new series would quit leaving her threatening E-mails, and (3) Ottavio Rossi, the blind date whose personal ad she answered, hadn't excused himself from dinner to feed the meter and never returned. Unlike the gentle reader, Chas doesn't know that Rossi's dead, the first ingredient in a ragout of culinary skullduggery that will simmer for two hundred pages before getting connected, with mind-boggling sangfroid, to India's A-bomb, the Federal Reserve, and Monica Lewinsky. The mystery, in other words, is from hunger. But although voluptuous, engaging Chas hasn't slimmed down from The Butter Did It (1997), Richman has wisely sweated pounds off her debut's chitchat and recipes, and the half a hundred feasts that parade briskly in review will whet your appetite for more. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In Murder on the Gravy Train, Chas Wheatley, a food writer with a taste for sleuthing, takes on the scandalous world of Washington tongue waggers and the deep-throated secrets of the restaurant business.. "Researching her new column, Chas discovers something is rotten with Washington's most popular new restaurant when the head chef goes missing. Chas becomes highly suspicious: Not only is the food suffering, but no one is willing to give her a straight answer as to his whereabouts.. "Bodies begin to surface around the nation's capital, confounding the police. But with Chas's clever eye for detail, her love of good gossip, her talent for digging up the truth, and her connections in the newspaper and culinary worlds, she is compelled to delve deeper into her investigation.

FROM THE CRITICS

Washington Post

A good book for the beach...Anyone who enjoyed The Butter Did It will enjoy the tart twists and odd ingredients in Richman's latest.

Dallas Morning News

A delightful trip...fun.

Publishers Weekly

Washington, D.C., restaurant reviewer Chas Wheatley (The Butter Did It) returns in this eye-opening expos of price-gouging in the dining industry. After a disastrous blind date with a waiter who hints that he knows secrets about restaurant corruption, Chas's luck turns when her editor offers her a syndicated food column. Inspired by her date, she plans her inaugural piece as an investigation of the nefarious practices some restaurants use to bilk their customers. What she uncovers will make readers who regularly dine out more cautious: the scams range from well-publicized credit card ploys to little-known pressure tactics taught to waiters during special classes. As she goes about collecting information, Chas hears that a chef whose dishes she admires has been fired for beating up a female co-worker. Soon afterward, the woman's body is found in the Tidal Basin, and Chas's friend, homicide detective Homer Jones, takes up the case, arresting the chef for murder. Chas isn't convinced he's guilty, however, especially when she realizes that the morgue also holds the body of her blind date--the waiter had been strangled and left without ID. Despite the distractions of her brief romance with a younger man and her dinners with Homer and his girlfriend, Chas finds time to sleuth to a successful conclusion. Blending mouth-watering descriptions of foods galore, subtle clues and a serious look at the responsibilities of restaurants, Richman whips up a frothy confection that, despite a bit of stiff writing here and there, should satiate most connoisseurs of food-oriented crime. Agent, Bob Barnett. Author tour. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Don't let the cutesy title fool you into thinking this is another in a long line of fluffy culinary mysteries. Murder on the Gravy Train is set in Washington, DC, and the sleuth is the restaurant critic for the Washington Examiner. Chas Wheatley is a slightly overweight, middle-aged divorce whose brush with a blind date culled from a personal column lands her in the midst of a series of murders centered around a popular Washington restaurant. When she discovers the cigar lounge is bugged and an attempt is made on her life, Chas enlists the help of her friends a homicide investigator, another reporter, her daughter, and a handsome (and younger!) Lebanese taxi driver to uncover the identities of the blackmailers/murderers. What sets this story apart are the wonderful atmosphere and background descriptions of the mechanics of being a big-time critic and the professional jealousy rampant in any newsroom, as well as the underside of the restaurant biz. Susan O'Malley's smooth, involving narration is a big plus, and Blackstone is to be commended for using the book's colorful eye-catching cover art on its plastic cassette holder. Enthusiastically recommended for all libraries. Barbara Perkins, Irving P.L., TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile