Gourmet Girl Mysteries

Chloe Carter's Internet date commits the ultimate gastronomic faux pas: He dies before dessert. Ever in search of the perfect meal - and the perfect man - 20-something grad student and food connoisseur Chloe Carter draws the line at speed dating. But when the Massachusetts native reluctantly signs up for Back Bay Dates, she's soon communicating with a guy after her own heart.

After months between gigs, Chloe Carter's dishy boyfriend, Josh Driscoll, has just landed his dream job: executive chef at Simmer, Boston's soon-to-be hottest new restaurant. As Josh preps for a New Year's Eve grand opening, Chloe, on winter break from grad school, hooks him up with Food for Thought, an annual charity fundraiser.

Having an executive chef boyfriend guarantees Chloe Carter the best table at Simmer, Boston's hottest new restaurant, any night of the week. But the Back Bay foodie's incredible comped dinners are usually enjoyed without Josh, whose pressure-cooker job has taken over his life. The same can't be said of Leandra, the pretty blond Simmer server whose body was just found in a seafood delivery truck. The truck belongs to Owen, the fiancé of Chloe's best friend, Adrianna. And Owen has no alibi for the night Leandra was strangled with her apron strings and dumped in his truck.

Chloe Carter is ready for her 15 minutes of vicarious fame. Her boyfriend, Josh Driscoll, is competing with two other chefs to win Chefly Yours, a cable reality series. The show takes place at an upscale market, where a random shopper is selected to be the lucky recipient of a home-cooked gourmet meal; the winning chef is then chosen by the viewers. But Josh's television career might be over before it starts when a shopper's wife, Francie, dies after dining on his signature lamb chops and pesto gnocchi.

Chloe leaps from the frying pan into the fire when she arrives for a meeting with Digger, one of Josh's friends and a rival chef, and discovers a dead body instead. Digger died of smoke inhalation from a blaze that started in his kitchen. Unable to believe that an executive chef would allow a grease fire to get so out of control, Chloe starts an unofficial search for the murderer.