MANHATTAN, OYSTERS MIGNONETTE, MANOLOS, AND MURDER
Lucia Maria Silvestribut her friends call her Macwears many chic hats. Shes a finance journalist turned head chef at a lower Manhattan French-American bistro, a fashion aficionado, occasional yogi, New Yorker tried and true, and recently remade single lady. Shes also a loyal girlfriend (think: Sex and the City-style Three Musketeers) to freelance film producer Eugenia Cho and NY Phil cellist Katerina Belchenkonot to mention adoring granddaughter to Nona, a much-loved Lower East Side Italian-American community fixture. Ace amateur sleuth couldnt be further from Macs plans. Turns out, you cant plan everything.
Because when smarmy investment banker (and friend of her ex) Jake Cooper drops by Macs bistro with a couple of
hmm, seedy
associates, Mac cant help but wonder what hes up to this time. And when he gets himself poisoned at the fabled Russian Tea Roomright in front of Mac, and just before spilling the name of the Russian oligarch from whom he squandered millionsshe cant help but investigate.
Turns out Jake had a hand in a massive insider trading ring which, of course, includes Macs ex-husband, Andrew (why wouldnt it?). Plus, he was deep in the priceless artwork tradean unexpectedly shadowy underworld to which Mac finds herself hypnotically drawn
Before she knows it, Macs waist-deep in much more than multi-million dollar art relics. She might even be waist-deep in murder. She finds she has no choice but to don said sleuth hat (not just any vintage haute couture will do), pick out a pair of trusty Manolo Blahniks to match, and solve the casebefore she (or one of the women she loves) winds up on the tragic receiving end of a Novichok cocktail.