kjscrafts's Full Review: Julie Hyzy - State of the Onion
Washington, D.C. is my favorite city in the world, so when I saw this book with a photo of the White House on the cover I immediately decided to buy it. I have also been enjoying reading several culinary mystery books lately (mostly by Joanne Fluke). Thus I really thought this would be a fun read. It was not horrible, as it kept me interested throughout, but it certainly did disappoint in the mystery/thriller aspect.
The main character of State of the Onion is a White House chef, Olivia Paras, who is second in the line of command in the kitchen. The man in charge of the kitchen, Henry, is about to retire and the book begins with her returning to the White House with his retirement gift and ending up getting involved with an intruder on the White House lawn. She becomes curious about how the Secret Service dealt with the intruder and his warning about the President being in danger, which ends up leading to her witnessing his death and seeing his killer. His killer ends up going after her the rest of the book because he is a infamous assassin that does not want any loose ends.
Sure it sounds like a thrilling plot and to some extent it is. Basically it has just enough thrill to it to be in the thriller/mystery part of the bookstore, but not enough to really satisfy me when I want to read a mystery book. There just is not much mystery to it. For a little while you wonder about the intruder on the lawn, but that is wrapped up rather quickly. Then you wonder for a little about who killed that man, however even though they do not catch him until the end it is made clear who he is not long after the murder. Even the end incident is not that surprising of one.
Overall I did enjoy this book. I just really expected a lot more thrill to it, especially since the cover had a quote clearly saying it was a culinary thriller. It still makes an enjoyable fiction book with it mostly actually being about Olivia’s life as a White House chef and dating a Secret Service agent. This main aspect to it makes up for the lack of thrill in my opinion, but I think many picking this up because it seems to be a thriller will be disappointed. If you are just looking for culinary fiction, though, this is a great book, especially the recipes at the back.
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