Chas Wheatley is also a food critic, but works for the mythical Washington Examiner. She has recently sabotaged her personal life by separating from her boyfriend Dave, the paper’s star investigative reporter. She was hoping the break-up would shock him into a greater appreciation of her. Instead, he heads to California on a long-term assignment, and she remains in Washington DC.

In a fit of desperation and loneliness, Chas decides to look for a companion through the personals. Of course the first man she meets is a colossal disappointment, particularly since he works in a restaurant, a situation Chas had tried to avoid in DC’s small world of reporting. Her ISO (in search of) encounter is made even worse when he disappears permanently in the middle of their date by running out to put money in his parking meter. She is not only left alone, but is also left holding the check.

Although Chas’s personal life is problematic, her professional life is looking up. She is assigned to a new project to inform her readers about the “dirty, sneaky, cheating things restaurants do to soak innocent diners.” Her boss has promised to nationally syndicate her new column and agrees to keep her new project hush-hush so she can investigate in secret. There is a great deal of money in the restaurant industry, and bad press is not good for business.

Chas’s best friend Sherele, the drama critic at the paper, and her boyfriend, Homer, a homicide detective, are two of Chas’s preferred dining companions. When Homer begins discussing his latest case, Chas is alarmed that she is able to identify two recent murder victims for him. It seems more than coincidental, and she senses it may tie in with her new assignment.

When another reporter on the paper scoops her story, Chas becomes determined to find the leak. Her life becomes even more complicated when her boss announces her restaurant corruption project to everyone, and she know the food industry will soon know, too, and she will need to watch her back.

Chas is not a typical heroine, being fifty, chubby, graying and a divorcee, but her personality is charismatic and her intelligence is lively. She confronts her faults, makes necessary changes in her life, and has attained a state of hard-won maturity. By pairing her unique knowledge of the city’s food industry with her investigative reporting skills, she is more than capable of gathering the necessary clues to solve the case.

The exposé of the restaurant industry is a revelation, the characters are multi-dimensional, the plot is well designed, and the clues are plentiful and complex. The subject is close to Ms. Richman’s heart and stomach, mixing a cast iron recipe for success.

--Monica Pope