Prudence Bulstrode, a celebrity chef famed for her traditional-style cooking, has been invited back to St Marianne’s School For Girls in Cornwall, the school she attended as a child and where her love for the culinary arts began. It’s the Easter holidays, and who better to lead a course on the basics of cookery for the small number of students who have chosen to stay.

Before you can say croque monsieur, however, a body is unearthed when the old hockey pitch is excavated, a body that Prudence quickly recognises as Mr Scott, the young Mathematics teacher who disappeared when she was at the school many years ago. He left a note and sailed off to who knows where – people saw him go – so how did his body end up buried for decades? As speculation begins to gather, is it possible that his murderer is still in the area?

“Publishing people will tell you we all have a book in us. It’s what lazy writers do – just cheaply cannibalise their own lives.”

So we’re back in the celebrity crime subgenre. For those not in the know, Rosemary Shrager is a chef who has produced a number of cookbooks and has a number of television appearances under her belt. She’s also the writer (including this one) of three mystery novels featuring Prudence Bulstrode and her niece Suki. And she’s clearly got a sense of humour, if the above line is anything to go by.

As is the fact that Prudence in this book has a rival chef/sleuth, but he needs a ghost-writer to tell his story… I’m curious as to who Rosemary is taking a pop at here. There’s been some discussion recently about ghost-writing in this subgenre – at least one celeb has basically said that her books are ghost-written, others have been accused of it but deny it and others aren’t even questioned. I think this is Rosemary’s way of making it clear that these are her books and no-one else’s. I’m rather pleased about that, as this is one of the most enjoyable mysteries that I’ve read in a while.

Oh, before I forget…

DON’T READ THE BLURB. THERE’S A MASSIVE SPOILER IN IT!

Right, that’s the public health warning out the way.

This is such a charming book. Prudence is a fine character, traditional without being a fuddy-duddy, capable of charming almost anyone with her culinary prowess (apart from rival chefs who thinks she humiliated her on a TV show) and her relationship with her granddaughter Suki is rather lovely. There’s a nice cast of characters, none of which cross the line into caricature (bar perhaps the rival chef but he’s fun, so fair enough). Yes, I suppose this could be ranked, if you must use the term, as cosy crime, but there’s a nicely complex story with a lot of heart behind it, and it’s even got clues.

Admittedly (and this is my one gripe) the clue in the suicide note is played far too heavily. Yes, it doesn’t give the killer away, but it does solve one particular aspect of the plot, and with the capital letters, it’s just too obvious for anyone who’s read… something. It’d be easily solved either without the capitals or even without Prudence pointing them out. It doesn’t give the whole picture, but it gave quite a lot of it.

Having said that, I still enjoyed this book a lot – it’s an easy read, with an intriguing plot and a real heart to it. Many thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

Too Many Cooks is out on Thursday 15^th February in hardback and ebook from Constable – in the meantime, why not take a look at the first two – The Last Supper and The Proof In The Pudding? I certainly will be in the not too distant future…