From Publishers Weekly
Kansas City restaurant owner Heaven Lee?and her creator, Temple?move from paperback (Death by Rhubarb, etc.) to hardcover in a thin mystery that sometimes spends more time on the technicalities of bread-baking than storytelling. Kansas City bakers and restaurant owners prepare for the arrival of the ARTOS convention, a gathering of bread bakers who promote natural breads and loathe assembly-line products. Heaven plans to attend the events with her daughter, soon to return to college, and her baker, Pauline. Tragedy strikes when General Irwin Mills, head of an experimental grain laboratory, falls to his death from a silo in front of hundreds of ARTOS members. A former attorney with a youthful boyfriend, Heaven gathers her resources to expose the cause of the general's death?and then a second ARTOS-related death occurs. Temple includes a variety of recipes from the heartland, in traditional culinary mystery fashion. But her humor is too often smothered by a thick dough of cooking digressions and stilted conversations. Her plotting is nimble enough, but her characterizations are weak, ultimately producing a mystery that, despite some heat, fails to rise. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Kansas City restaurant owner Heaven Lee, recently bitten by the bread-making bug, learns more than she bargained for at a bread group's conference held in town. Experimental researchers hoping to use bread for peace compete with big business trying to increase crop production at the expense of the land. When the differences lead to murder, Heaven investigates. Subplots dealing with Heaven's much younger lover, her daughter's much older lover, and recipes of items mentioned in the text provide relief from an abundance of wheat-related facts. For fans of this series (Stiff Risotto, St. Martin's, 1997) and other culinary mysteries.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
Temples hardcover debut features energetic, meant-to-be-lovable Heaven Lee, the five-times-married mother of 22-year-old Iris; girlfriend of medical resident Hank; and owner of Caf Heaven in Kansas City, Missouri. Pauline, the restaurants baker, is a board member of ARTOS, a national bread-baking group hosting a convention in Kansas City and environs. The group has plans to visit experimental farms growing new wheat varieties, and also to stop in at the plant of the very commercial, much- scorned BIG BREAD, which has been funding the cloning research of General Irwin Mills. During the ARTOS visit to BIG BREAD, said General falls to his death from atop a siloperhaps to the satisfaction of scientist Walter Jinks, whose ideas on feeding the world are directly opposed to those of Mills. Yet another track is that of Mennonite Ernest Powell, whose mission is to put a bread-making machine into every kitchen, using traditional red turkey with wheat flour, of course. The conventions last days bring death to a world-famous baker and a kind of mass spaciness to the participants. It takes a hairbreadth escape from her own demise for Heaven to get to the bottom of it all. An imaginative if off-the-wall plot, a hep heroine, and a slew of clip-worthy recipes help to offset the never-ending lectures on enzymes, glutens, wheats, ryes, and more. Heavens further adventures, preferably breadless, are anticipated. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"[Heaven Lee] is a charming heroine."--Chicago Tribune

"A likable protagonist...An entertaining plot. And with recipes for vegetable root bake and peanut butter shortbread, who can resist?"--Booklist

"An imaginative...plot, a hep heroine, and a slew of clip-worthy recipes."--Kirkus Reviews



Review
"[Heaven Lee] is a charming heroine."--Chicago Tribune

"A likable protagonist...An entertaining plot. And with recipes for vegetable root bake and peanut butter shortbread, who can resist?"--Booklist

"An imaginative...plot, a hep heroine, and a slew of clip-worthy recipes."--Kirkus Reviews



Review
"[Heaven Lee] is a charming heroine."--Chicago Tribune

"A likable protagonist...An entertaining plot. And with recipes for vegetable root bake and peanut butter shortbread, who can resist?"--Booklist

"An imaginative...plot, a hep heroine, and a slew of clip-worthy recipes."--Kirkus Reviews



Book Description
When murder strikes at a bread-making convention, Heaven Lee must rise to the occasion...

Having overcome a series of failed careers, sassy sometime-sleuth Heaven Lee has found her own slice of paradise as a pre-eminent Kansas City chef. When the ARTOS (Greek for bread) convention comes to town, Heaven looks forward to nothing more than gathering some bread-making tips, but things start to heat up when one of her colleagues falls to his death from a grain elevator and another is found murdered in a pan of bread dough. Add to this recipe the startling fact that someone has tainted some of the convention's dough, causing its eaters to go temporarily insane, and Heaven's got more on her plate than most cooks can handle...



About the Author
Lou Jane Temple is an adventurer. She has taken on the food world, cooking and catering, being a restaurateur, writing about food and wine, and authoring six culinary mysteries featuring Heaven Lee. She has also bee a guest chef at the Culinary Institute of America and at the famed James Beard Foundation. Lou Jane lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Heaven Lee, Kansas City chef and reluctant heroine, is one tough cookie. Not only can she slice, dice, and julienne the finest food in town, she's got nerves of steel to match her culinary skills. This time, Heaven Lee takes on the fine art of making bread. But when one of her associates mysteriously winds up dead in the dough, perfecting her breadbaking skills is suddenly the last of Heaven's worries, as someone with a taste for murder is on the loose.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Kansas City restaurant owner Heaven Lee--and her creator, Temple--move from paperback (Death by Rhubarb, etc.) to hardcover in a thin mystery that sometimes spends more time on the technicalities of bread-baking than storytelling. Kansas City bakers and restaurant owners prepare for the arrival of the ARTOS convention, a gathering of bread bakers who promote natural breads and loathe assembly-line products. Heaven plans to attend the events with her daughter, soon to return to college, and her baker, Pauline. Tragedy strikes when General Irwin Mills, head of an experimental grain laboratory, falls to his death from a silo in front of hundreds of ARTOS members. A former attorney with a youthful boyfriend, Heaven gathers her resources to expose the cause of the general's death--and then a second ARTOS-related death occurs. Temple includes a variety of recipes from the heartland, in traditional culinary mystery fashion. But her humor is too often smothered by a thick dough of cooking digressions and stilted conversations. Her plotting is nimble enough, but her characterizations are weak, ultimately producing a mystery that, despite some heat, fails to rise. (Nov.)

Library Journal

Kansas City restaurant owner Heaven Lee, recently bitten by the bread-making bug, learns more than she bargained for at a bread group's conference held in town. Experimental researchers hoping to use bread for peace compete with big business trying to increase crop production at the expense of the land. When the differences lead to murder, Heaven investigates. Subplots dealing with Heaven's much younger lover, her daughter's much older lover, and recipes of items mentioned in the text provide relief from an abundance of wheat-related facts. For fans of this series (Stiff Risotto, St. Martin's, 1997) and other culinary mysteries.

Kirkus Reviews

Temple's hardcover debut features energetic, meant-to-be-lovable Heaven Lee, the five-times-married mother of 22-year-old Iris; girlfriend of medical resident Hank; and owner of Café Heaven in Kansas City, Missouri. Pauline, the restaurant's baker, is a board member of ARTOS, a national bread-baking group hosting a convention in Kansas City and environs. The group has plans to visit experimental farms growing new wheat varieties, and also to stop in at the plant of the very commercial, much-scorned BIG BREAD, which has been funding the cloning research of General Irwin Mills. During the ARTOS visit to BIG BREAD, said General falls to his death from atop a silo—-perhaps to the satisfaction of scientist Walter Jinks, whose ideas on feeding the world are directly opposed to those of Mills. Yet another track is that of Mennonite Ernest Powell, whose mission is to put a bread-making machine into every kitchen, using traditional red turkey with wheat flour, of course. The convention's last days bring death to a world-famous baker and a kind of mass spaciness to the participants. It takes a hairbreadth escape from her own demise for Heaven to get to the bottom of it all. An imaginative if off-the-wall plot, a hep heroine, and a slew of clip-worthy recipes help to offset the never-ending lectures on enzymes, glutens, wheats, ryes, and more. Heaven's further adventures, preferably breadless, are anticipated.