Affairs of Steak by Julie Hyzy
This is a pretty good cozy mystery, though not quite as good as Buffalo West Wing. It’s got the familiar trope of the protagonist finding a couple of bodies in an unlikely place during an early scene. The rest of the book has her revealing clues one by one, as tertiary characters also die under mysterious circumstances, but not before revealing tantalizing bits of information which will lead the protagonist to be the one that discovers things.
The good thing about this novel is that I liked the protagonist, though it’s been a few weeks since I finished it so I have already forgotten her name. Setting it in the White House was a novelty which I also appreciate. I liked that she had a bit of a romance on the side, and I like that her personality was all about professionalism and discretion. Some of her daily conflicts involve soothing the emotions of people she can’t stand, just so that they can all work together on a common goal.
The bad thing about this novel is its formulaic nature. That’s only moderately a bad thing; fans of the genre will find it comforting and, as they say, “it’s a cliche because it works.” I really couldn’t care less about the murder itself. The characters were unknown to me, their motivations uncompelling, the reason for the murders flimsy as best. The protagonist, having been the sleuth in four previous novels, now has a reputation for getting involved in messy/dastardly events. Having other characters comment on that just made me lose the fourth wall. In cozy mysteries, the killer kills someone for a dumb reason like “I wanted the inheritance faster so I could marry Miss. Blakeley” and then they kill witnesses with abandon, and the bystanders of this horrific and ultimately unsuccessful serial-killer like behavior kind of shrug and tut their heads with disappointment when they find out that charming Mister Haverford was the murderer all along. Since this happens in every cozy mystery, I don’t know the reason why I found this unbelievable. I’ve read cozy mysteries and liked them. Maybe it’s because I read this after Buffalo West Wing and had different expectations. In the previous novel, the plot involved a plot against the president’s family for political reasons, which I found plausible. Political thriller! Yes! But the murders in this seemed more Agatha Christie kind of pointless, and for some reason I just couldn’t get into it. I just didn’t care about the victims because they just weren’t real people to me, and the murders didn’t make much sense. I guess most murders don’t make much sense, so fans of true crime might adore this.
So, this book is a solidly written cozy mystery. It’s pretty well done and it wasn’t bad reading, but it doesn’t enhance the genre as much as the previous one did. Or maybe I just liked the novelty of being in the White House in the last one and it’s worn off. Or maybe I am suddenly over cozy mystery and it’s been a long time coming and it wasn’t Hyzy’s fault that this was the one that broke the camel’s back. I liked the characters and wanted to spend more time with them, but this plot just didn’t engage me as much as I’d hoped. Honestly, I’d probably prefer a book that was just about a White House Chef and her daily life without murders and sleuthing.
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