What a brilliant who has done it!

This will keep you guessing until the very end, every time you think you have worked it out it all falls apart. Love the characters, who are all crime writers and very intelligent but it still almost escapes them. The story of a dinner party and someone getting poisoned is a very old scenario but, this opens up to be a much better story with more deaths. With only a small amount of suspects, you would think you could work it out! I liked this as every page kept you turning for the next bit. This will be in my top ten for this year.

Every year celebrity chef and best selling crime writer Max Wilde hosts a dinner party for other best selling authors. This year he has planned an unusual twist - Max has flown over a celebrated Japanses chef to serve the potentially deadly delicacy Fugu, a pufferfish that is poisonous if not properly prepared. With a menu designed around other possibly poisionous ingredients the evening is a hit. When Max Wilde is found dead the next morning, poisoned, all of his guests come under suspicion. After all, they are all crime writers, if anyone can get away with murder they can.

I love a good cosy murder, so was excited to dive in to this one. I found it a bit of a struggle though.

From the first few chapters of the book I was finding that something was grating on me, but it took me a while to put my finger on exactly what. I'm still finding it hard to put into words, but I think ultimately it comes down to there being too much telling rather than showing the reader things. There isn't much chance for us to infer what is going on. It felt awkward to read and rather amateur.

I liked the idea of the plot, the book starts with introducing us to each of the characters, which is a great way for us to get to know them. Each of the characters had a reason for wanting Max dead so suspicion falls on them all. Unfortunately within a couple of chapters of the murder I had worked out who the killer was. It was very obvious, and certainly could have been better hidden.

I also found the character development a little lacking. Again there is a lot of telling rather than showing here, and a few instances where things seem to have been thrown in to add depth but end up feeling out of place. There's a lot of sex thrown about in this one too. I wouldn't class myself as prudish but it didn't seem to add anything to the storyline so to me was unnecessary.

I think with a bit of work this could be a great read, but for me at the moment it's lacking some finesse.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mr E Entertainment for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great read that had me gripped all the way through. I guessed the baddie really early but the author threw in enough twists to make me doubt my thoughts. Really excellent read and I hope it does well when it is released - it certainly deserves to! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to an early copy of this book.

Well wasn't this book a lot of fun to read! It had me tied up in knots all the way through as I tried to second guess and predict. Eventually I gave all that up and just went with the flow and had an absolute blast in doing so.
We start with celebrity chef / TV presenter / crime writer Max Wilde. He is pretty much top of his game in all his endeavours and, after first meeting him on one of his tours to Japan, we get to know him better during the run up to his annual dinner. There is an eclectic mix of guests, some old, some new, but I think, for maximum enjoyment, it's best you get to know all of them as the author intends. They are all cracking characters so... fill your boots!
This year's event goes a bit south when Max is found dead in his bed the morning after... And soon enough, fingers start to point in various directions as it transpires that pretty much everyone in the cast has some motive or grudge against him. But then there's another death and the stakes get higher...
I loved this book and I hope I am not doing it an injustice when I say that at times it reads a wee bit tongue in cheek. In a good way, I hasten to add as I had an absolute blast reading it. With its larger than life characters, all with secrets and lies, and displaying a rather healthy side order of dysfunctional behaviour. All acting out what ended up being a tightly driven plot, well executed and containing all the usual red herrings and obfuscation you'd expect from the genre. Yes it does take a while to get to the murder but there are a lot of pieces to manoeuvre into position before the main shenanigans can begin. Think of the preparation that goes into a dinner party!
And boy did I kick myself at the end. Yep, the clues were all there, and I should have known better but... when we did eventually get there I have to admit to being a bit slow on the uptake. But yeah, once it was all said and done and the dust settled, a job well done by the author. A debut author to boot too! Even more impressed!
All that's left now to say is that I really can't wait to see what he serves up for his next course, I'll definitely be pouncing on that as soon as... My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Ever year, celebrity chef and bestselling crime writer Max Wilde invites a few hand-picked authors to spend a weekend at his home, featuring an extraordinary dinner on the first night. This year’s menu includes dishes called Murderous Mushrooms, a Soupçon of Suspicion – and the deadly pufferfish dish Fugu. The guests cautiously enjoy the meal, then retreat to their assigned bedrooms. The next morning, Max is found dead in his bed, and everyone present is a suspect. When the body count starts to rise, the surviving guests don’t know who they can trust, but know they must find a solution – and soon.

This appears to be the author’s first novel, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the book. The book begins by introducing us to each of the primary characters, all of them accomplished authors. The book tells its story by alternating between the characters, establishing their personalities and (eventually) their backstories, thus providing motives for each of them to have killed Max. I actually picked up on what turned out to be a major clue relatively early in the story, but wasn’t sure I’d interpreted it correctly until the reveal at the end of the book. Even then, confirmation of the culprit’s identity was surprising, although the motive was not.

I don’t think this will be the beginning of a series, but anything is possible. If there is another book to come, I will definitely want to read it.

Thank you NetGalley! I loved the title! I was disappointed that I just could not get into this book.

What an enjoyable, fun read but, oh my goodness, I wanted to bump the victim off myself from the first meeting.
I was kept guessing to the reveal and there were twists, turns and surprises along the way.
My one criticism is the female characters are obviously written by a man.
Thanks to Netgalley.

I enjoyed the start of this book and the premise of the dinner party, but the back stories of the guests did feel a bit tedious at times and a bit too much of a slow burn for me. I also struggled at times with the rather stilted dialogue. However, I did persevere until the end to find out what happened
Thank you to netgalley and Mr E entertainment for an advance copy of this book.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3

I was expecting a witty homage to the Golden Age of crime fiction but this felt tired and full of cliches. I liked the premise and thought it could be an interesting exploration of all the different books that are part of the genre. However, it was quickly clear that the female characters weren't that believable and the final denouement did not make the payoff worthwhile.

Max Wilde is the sort of man who seems to make a success of everything he turns his hand to. Celebrity chef, television presenter, and bestselling crime writer Max Wilde is about to hold his annual dinner party. Invited are four other successful crime writers as well as Max’s assistant and John Finney, a retired police detective-inspector. Even before they sit down to dinner it becomes clear that most guests at the dinner party have a reason to hate their host as does Gemma, Max’s assistant, and Robert, his brother.

Despite the menu on the night being murder themed with dishes named The Poisoned Quail, Red Herring, and Murderous Mushrooms accompanied by a bottle or two of Sparkling Cyanide it isn’t until the next morning that Max is found dead in his bed as a result of Hemlock poisoning. With almost everybody having both a motive and the opportunity to put the poison in the glass of water on Max’s bedside table, there are no easy answers. And while the police are on the case, the group of crime writers, led by John Finney, start their own investigation. But it won’t be until more deaths have followed that the culprit is unveiled in an action-packed finale.

This story is a bit of a slow burner. The book starts with introductions of the various characters followed by events on the night of the dinner party and it isn’t until we are about 40% into the story that Max is discovered dead in his bed and the investigation starts. In the hands of a lesser writer that relatively long introduction might have been boring, but I flew through it because all the characters are unique and interesting individuals. What’s more, as far as I can tell, this is the first book by G.S. Revel Burroughs, and I’m impressed. This is a clever, well-written, and captivating mystery. I enjoyed it from start to finish and found it difficult to put my Kindle down. The story is written from a third-person omniscient perspective, which isn’t easy to pull off but works remarkably well here. It was always clear whose head I was in and the transitions from one character to the next were smooth and flowed easily. Since among those characters is a murderer, we know that at least one of them has to be an unreliable narrator, but that only added to the reading fun for me.

Long review short: A Recipe For Murder is a special treat for anyone who enjoys a well-plotted mystery. I look forward to reading whatever G.S. Revel Burroughs may write next.

Famous chef invites crime writers over.
Someone kills the chef.
And the incidents do not stop there.
Certainly witty and entertaining, and I quite liked the third person POV.

3.5 rounded to 4.
I liked this book! I liked the Agatha Christie vibes that it gave, though it did take me awhile to adjust to there not really being an identified narrator. I did suspect the murderer for most of the book but still enjoyed the journey the book took me on!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC! This opinion is my own.

I enjoyed an e-ARC copy but this is an honest review.

This was an enjoyable and fast paced murder mystery with some of the cosy tropes, but not too much to be overly sweet.

Centred around the dinner party of the outrageously rich although not especially talented author/chef/TV personality Max Wilde. It's not a spoiler to say that but everyone who attended the dinner makes it out alive.

The characters were well described and easy to distinguish, not always the case for a plot like this, I was able to keep straight who was who all the way through. The women were written to be more captivate than the men.

I did guess the ending part way through but it certainly wasn't obviously and it was a satisfying conclusion.

Title: A Recipe For Murder
Author: GS Revel Burroughs
Pages: 330
Rating: 5/5*

Arc Copy - review left voluntarily
Publish date - 5th September 2024

Max is a well known TV chef and crime author. Every year he holds a dinner party for the most famous and successful crime authors that year! With a menu fit for revenge, everyone becomes a suspect in this fantastic crime novel!!

Oh my goodness. I needed to shake it up a little bit with my genre and this book did not disappoint. As usual for me when it comes to crime books it takes a while to get in to however, as the pace quickened, so did my reading.

I loved the idea of the poison garden. The red herrings (not just as a starter) it was so cleverly written and I thoroughly enjoyed guessing who the killer was.

The deaths were brilliant and I hope that Burroughs search history isn't being investigated any time soon with all the poison research.

A great book. A great change of pace.

Will you be reading it??


*Note from me: I never want to dim people's shine. It's brave for the author to put themselves out there in the public eye. Books/stories are personal preferences. What might be my cup of tea may not be yours. And vice Versa! Keep on creating!

A Recipe for Murder is a fun locked-room mystery that is reminiscent of Agatha Christie. Celebrity chef Max Wilde hosts a select, invite-only dinner once a year; to be invited to this meal is an honor that only the elite crime-writing authors get to enjoy. This year, Max invites some familiar authors along with new stars and one special guest. His theme for this particular dinner is poison, and Max goes all out to even include Fugu. When Max is discovered dead the next morning, a dark cloud hangs over the manor. Did he die from something he ate? Did one of the fellow guests kill him? Soon, it becomes apparent that everyone has a secret that they're trying desperately to hide. Are one of these secrets the reason for Max's death?

A Recipe for Murder is a fun locked-room mystery. I absolutely enjoyed all of the characters and thought the author did a great job developing them. Unfortunately, I can only give this book three stars due to its predictability. I knew who the killer was from just a third into the book. And while the reasons I knew who it was are the same reasons that the mystery is solved (and, yes, that does give me some pride), it's quite obvious. The reason I kept reading was because of the characters and their fun banter and relationships. I feel like the clues could be a bit less obvious. I would have liked to have been stumped/guessing for longer. No matter, it is still a fun read that I could totally see turning into a movie. Also, the food all sounded delicious! I loved the inclusion of the meal's menus!

Thanks to #netgalley for allowing me to read this publication.

When I requested this book, I imagined it to be Christie-esque but it unfortunately didn’t flow as easily or smoothly.

It is written as by a third person and is very disjointed. Various tales of crime-writers lives all cut and shunted together around an invitation to dinner at a local celebrities house. A lot of characters to remember and the lead up to the dinner party was slow and laborious.

The initial idea of the plot was pretty decent but it was carried off to its full potential.

I heartily recommend this story as it drew me in straightaway.

The characters are well-formed and the relationships are interesting. I started reading a few pages each day - the first part of the book sets up the murder and all the suspects. The second part contains all the investigations.

I loved this book, it certainly is a recipe for murder.
Max Wilde is a famous chef and TV personality and crime writer, he is famous for his intimate annual dinners at his house, Burnham Manor with celebrity crime writers eager to receive an invite. This year is no exception with a gust list of both established and new writers. There is a difference this year as he has also invited one of his neighbours, an ex DCI famous for solving a famous poisoning.
The dinner includes a dish prepared by a renowned Japanese chef, Fugu, from the poison puffer fish.
When Max is found dead the following morning, all the guests are suspects, along with his brother Robert, but who is responsible?
Well written and absolutely gripping with a few nice twists in it.

crime-fiction, TV-film-industry, TV-personality, cooking-show, writers, poisons, law-enforcement, multiple-deaths, multiple-authors, multiple-perspectives, sardonic, secrets, sly-humor, snarky, suspense****

The publisher's blurb is a dandy hook, but the story itself is a Gordian Knot of innuendo and mischief among the crime writing chefs. Verrry interrresting. But strrrange. Verrry strrrange.
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from Mr E Entertainment via NetGalley.Thanks.

An interesting murder mystery with a hatful of possible murderers to choose from each with their very own motive - but whodunnit?
Great fun and recommended.
My thanks to NetGally and the publishers for this arc in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.