Here's a mystery guaranteed to make you hungry--for the salmon-filled pasta squares that Chef Laurence Levain sells for $20 a pop at his Washington, D.C. restaurant, for the salad of curly chicory and thick chunks of country bacon that first brings Levain and American food critic Chas (for Charlotte Sue) Wheatley together in Paris, for the warm polenta salad and pan-fried three-meat dumplings served at the CityTastes benefit the night that Levain is found dead of an apparent heart attack and Chas--his lover--has to write his obituary. Washington Post restaurant critic Phyllis Richman certainly knows her food, and her skill at keeping a lively mystery plot simmering is almost as impressive.

From Library Journal
Susan O'Mally's reading matches the bright, cheerful tone of this first mystery novel. Richman, the Washington Post food writer, has no difficulty blending culinary details with the investigation into the death of superstar chef Laurence Levain. On the case is Washington restaurant critic Charlotte "Chas" Wheatley, once the victim's lover. Richman combines the art of cooking, the business of running restaurants, the colorful characters who work for newspapers, a gourmet of a police detective, the social and political swirl of Washington, and Chas's complicated love life into an entertaining tale. Highly recommended.?Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Arthur Lubow
Although the publisher compares The Butter Did It to the popular sendup of haute cuisine, Someone is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe, I think it belongs more to the genre of semiautobiographical novels about middle-aged journalists ... Ms. Richman is most convincing when she is describing the mixture of bonhomie and rivalry that characterizes life in a big-city news room, or the way in which critics are besieged by inquires and advice from friends and strangers on what to eat or see.

From AudioFile
Phyllis Richman, renowned restaurant critic for the Washington Post, has concocted a delectable tale of manslaughter, edibles and romance. When Laurence Levain, preeminent Washington chef, is found dead in his apartment, everyone except his friend and former lover, restaurant critic Chas Wheatly, believes his demise is due to his gastronomic excesses. Wheatly's detective pursuits transport the reader to the privileged universe of exclusive chefs and restaurants. Susan O'Mally's wry narration adds the appropriate amount of seasoning to this tale. Her vocal transitions are as facile as the course changes of an attentive waiter. This is a yarn worth savoring. B.J.L. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
A terrific and stylish first mystery by the Washington Post's restaurant critic. Her heroine, Chas Wheatley, is the restaurant critic for "Washington's newest and fastest-growing newspaper, the Examiner" and is a type beloved of both writers and readers of cozies: in her late forties, with a fascinating job she loves, a charming (and exasperating) grown child, a divorced spouse, lovers past and present, and a taste for sensuous description. Richman's Chas is all these things and more, a vivid presence who responds with pain and grace to the death of a famed local chef she once loved. Chas immediately suspects murder and enlists an elegant detective gourmand, her daughter, and her best friend, the paper's theater critic, in a quest for the killer. The goddess lurks in the details here: Richman describes food, clothing, and objects with precise, lush but not overripe prose; she captures wonderfully the sound and sense of a contemporary newspaper office and shows how e-mail can tie office mates together far more closely than sitting next to one another might; she effortlessly conveys how much fun (and how much work) eating for a living is. How can you not love a writer who includes a reference to the wry and passionate folksinging McGarrigle sisters? Four stars for a stunning debut. GraceAnne DeCandido

From Kirkus Reviews
A debut novel set in the competitive world of upscale restaurants in Washington, D.C. Chas Wheatley, a food critic for the Examiner, is shocked and unbelieving when her long-ago lover and longtime friend Laurence Levain, a master chef, is found dead in his apartment on the eve of the City Tastes gala, an annual event he founded. Heart attack is pronounced the cause, supposedly brought on by a sexual encounter with a hooker. But Chas knows from her brief, years-back affair with Laurence that he would never entertain a woman before a major food event. She presses Det. Homer Jones to look further, and it's soon proved that an overdose of Digoxin, Laurence's heart medication, was the culprit. Now Chas turns detective, seeking motive and killer among Laurence's friends and enemies: Chas's own ex-husband Ari, now in the catering business with his lover Paul; Laurence's older sister Jeanine; his newest girl friend Bebe; chef-restauranteurs Marcel and Marie Claire, who were scheduled to open a New York establishment with Laurence; and others galore. Eventually, Chas herself becomes a target of the poisoner, but makes it through to see her mission fulfilled. Writing with practiced assurance, the author has a fresh, blithe, sometimes raunchy style far beyond the talent needed for her real-life food critic's job at the Washington Post. A stronger editorial hand, however, would've helped tighten the plot and stem the flow of recipes, romances, and gossip that deadens suspense and threatens coherence. Altogether, then, a flawed but intriguingly different and readable first outing. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Laurence Levain was a culinary superstar: The high-profile owner and chef of Chez Laurence, an internationally renowned restaurant in Washington, D.C., his specialty was the world-famous Les Nouilles en Quilt Multicolore, an incomparably lush pasta dish to die for. So when Levain collapses in his clogs the night before CityTastes, a star-studded black-tie benefit dinner, all bets are on his soaring cholesterol level. But one person has her doubts: Chas Wheatley, the Washington Examiner's saber-penned restaurant critic, seems to think that it was more than just excessive amounts of cholesterol that killed the culinary genius. Wheatley, who still carries a torch for Levain after an affair years before and is convinced that someone wanted him to go the the grave with all his secrets, uses all her investigative resources to find the culprit. Enlisting the help of detective/gourmand Homer Jones (who spends more time at the table than on the trail of the killer), her daughter, Lily - whose connections to the food world are of a more intimate variety - and Dave Zeeger, the Examiner's star investigative reporter and Chas's partner in the bedroom as well as the newsroom, she soon finds herself in more hot water than she bargained for.

FROM THE CRITICS

AudioFile - Beth J. Long

Phyllis Richman, renowned restaurant critic for the Washington Post, has concocted a delectable tale of manslaughter, edibles and romance. When Laurence Levain, preeminent Washington chef, is found dead in his apartment, everyone except his friend and former lover, restaurant critic Chas Wheatly, believes his demise is due to his gastronomic excesses. Wheatly's detective pursuits transport the reader to the privileged universe of exclusive chefs and restaurants. Susan O'Mally's wry narration adds the appropriate amount of seasoning to this tale. Her vocal transitions are as facile as the course changes of an attentive waiter. This is a yarn worth savoring. B.J.L. cAudioFile, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

A debut novel set in the competitive world of upscale restaurants in Washington, D.C. Chas Wheatley, a food critic for the Examiner, is shocked and unbelieving when her long-ago lover and longtime friend Laurence Levain, a master chef, is found dead in his apartment on the eve of the City Tastes gala, an annual event he founded. Heart attack is pronounced the cause, supposedly brought on by a sexual encounter with a hooker. But Chas knows from her brief, years-back affair with Laurence that he would never entertain a woman before a major food event. She presses Det. Homer Jones to look further, and it's soon proved that an overdose of Digoxin, Laurence's heart medication, was the culprit. Now Chas turns detective, seeking motive and killer among Laurence's friends and enemies: Chas's own ex-husband Ari, now in the catering business with his lover Paul; Laurence's older sister Jeanine; his newest girl friend Bebe; chef-restauranteurs Marcel and Marie Claire, who were scheduled to open a New York establishment with Laurence; and others galore. Eventually, Chas herself becomes a target of the poisoner, but makes it through to see her mission fulfilled. Writing with practiced assurance, the author has a fresh, blithe, sometimes raunchy style far beyond the talent needed for her real-life food critic's job at the Washington Post. A stronger editorial hand, however, would've helped tighten the plot and stem the flow of recipes, romances, and gossip that deadens suspense and threatens coherence.

Altogether, then, a flawed but intriguingly different and readable first outing.

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