Book Synopsis:
TV Chef Luca Mazza Dies After Collapse at Food Show on the King’s Private Estate
Luca Mazza (38), who was taken ill during a food demonstration at the Fenn House Food and Wine Festival two days ago, is now known to have ingested poison. Lady Beatrice (36), the king’s niece, who is working on a refurbishment project at Fenn House with her business partner Perry Juke (34), is believed to be comforting Luca’s boss and close friend Sebastiano Marchetti (38), who she began dating last month.
Is he crazy? Why else would Detective Chief Inspector Richard Fitzwilliam suggest that Sebastiano poisoned Luca without any evidence? So now, with the help of her little dog Daisy and her best friends Perry and Simon, Lady Beatrice will have to prove to Mr Know-it-all Fitzwilliam that Seb is innocent. But with so many people having access to the food preparation area at the show how will she find out who did murder Luca before Fitzwilliam lets his personal dislike get the better of him and arrests Seb?
Extract:
Intro
Lady Beatrice and her business partner Perry Juke are at Fenn House, the private country estate of Lady Beatrice’s uncle, King James, to manage the redesign and refurbishment of ten guest suites and four sitting rooms. At the same time the Fenn House Food and Wine Festival is taking place in the grounds of the estate organised by Lady Beatrice’s new beau Sebastiano Marchetti, known to his legion of fans as Chef Seb. Perry’s crime writer partner, Simon Lattimore, who was last year’s winner of Celebrity Elitechef, is also on-site hosting cooking demonstrations.
One of the other big names from the world of food attending is Chef Seb’s very good friend Luca Mazza, the television star of Get Your Cook On. Luca was taken ill a few days ago with a stomach upset but had then seemed to recover. However while hosting the opening demonstration of the festival Luca had collapsed and had been taken to the hospital with suspected dehydration. But now he’s not responding to treatment and everyone is concerned…
Extract
“Isn’t that Detective Inspector Mike Ainsley coming our way?” Perry Juke asked Lady Beatrice as they walked out of the side entrance of Fenn House. “He doesn’t look like he’s dressed for a day of exploring a food and wine show.”
“Plus, he’s in completely the wrong place if he wanted to,” Lady Beatrice pointed out. “And anyway, isn’t that Detective Sergeant Hines with him?”
Perry nodded. “Do you think maybe the police have a watching brief when there’s an event on at Fenn House?”
She shrugged. “That must be it. I can’t think why else they would be here.”
“Mike.” Lady Beatrice smiled at the sturdily built grey-haired man in a blue suit walking towards her and held out her hand. “Good to see you. Are you on-site to pick up some delicious food to take back to Fenshire CID HQ? If so, Perry here can recommend an excellent cake stall.”
Mike Ainsley laughed as the two men came to a standstill in front of her. Shaking Lady Beatrice’s hand and nodding at Perry, he said, “Well, thank you for the offer, my lady. I do have a sweet tooth, so I may take Mr Juke up on that a bit later. But for the moment, we’re here in an official capacity investigating the poisoning of Luca Mazza.”
“Poisoning?” Lady Beatrice and Perry cried together.
“Yes. Unfortunately, it would appear Mr Mazza has potentially ingested some death cap mushrooms and is very ill as a result. We need to find out when and where he could have eaten them so we can establish if it was through someone else’s gross incompetence or if he accidentally ate them himself.”
Death cap mushrooms? A heavy feeling settled in her stomach. But he’s a professional chef. How did he not know?
“Aren’t they fatal?” Perry asked, his eyes wide as he gazed at the inspector.
Mike nodded. “They can be if the eater doesn’t get help quick enough. Fortunately, a doctor on call when Mr Mazza arrived at the hospital knew he was a chef and recognised the symptoms of death cap mushroom poisoning, so acted quickly to get him treated. They are doing everything they can, but it’s not looking good.”
Oh my gosh, poor Luca. Lady Beatrice ran her fingers through her long hair. Seb must be beside himself with worry. That’s if he even knows. She glanced at her watch. He would have only just finished his show.
“So what exactly are you investigating, Mike?”
“Well, the Environmental and Health Authority are up at the hotel where he’s been staying. Luca’s girlfriend told us he thought it was something he’d eaten on Monday night at dinner that made him ill. They’re checking to see if anyone else who was having dinner at the hotel that night has become unwell. And in the meantime, Hines and I are meeting with the show’s organisers to find out if it’s possible he could’ve eaten the mushrooms here and to see if anyone else has been ill.”
“Can’t you just ask Luca what happened?” Perry asked.
Mike grimaced. “Mr Mazza has been unconscious since he arrived at the hospital yesterday. I’m afraid he can’t help us.”
How could Luca have been well enough to even start his show yesterday? Rubbing her forehead, Lady Beatrice said, “But he appeared so much better yesterday until he collapsed. It seems unbelievable that it could be something he ate as long ago as Monday night. And how could a chef not know he was eating death caps?”
DS Hines, his grey suit hanging off his skinny frame, stepped forward. “That’s the problem with death caps, my lady. You’re ill for a couple of days, then you seem to be getting better, and suddenly, you go downhill rapidly. And even experienced mushroom pickers sometimes get it wrong as death caps look similar to puffballs when in the button stage. Once cooked and hidden in a sauce, they would be nearly impossible to identify.”
Mike nodded in the sergeant’s direction. “Eamon here is a bit of an expert on death cap mushroom poisoning. He was recently on a case where a whole family died after eating mushrooms the father had picked in the woods behind where they lived.”
“Why didn’t they go to the hospital if they felt that ill?” Perry asked.
Lady Beatrice raised her hand to her mouth. Hadn’t Seb told her he’d tried to persuade Luca to go to the hospital, but Luca had refused? Poor Seb. He’ll be mad at himself for not insisting.
“Unfortunately, for most people, there are no symptoms for the first six to twelve hours. Then they get stomach pains with sickness and diarrhoea and think they’ve got a bug or mild food poisoning,” Hines told them. “So they don’t go to see anyone about it, and that’s when the damage is done. By then, the internal organs are being severely, sometimes irreparably, damaged.” He shook his head.
Perry gasped. “Does that mean he’ll die?”
Hines frowned. “It’s a real possibility.”
About The Author:
Hello. I’m Helen Golden. I write British contemporary cozy whodunnits with a hint of humour. I live in small village in Lincolnshire in the UK with my husband, my step-daughter, her two cats, our two dogs, sometimes my step-son, and our tortoise.I used to work in senior management, but after my recent job came to a natural end I had the opportunity to follow my dreams and start writing. It’s very early in my life as an author, but so far I’m loving it.It’s crazy busy at our house, so when I’m writing I retreat to our caravan (an impulsive lockdown purchase) which is mostly parked on our drive. When I really need total peace and quiet, I take it to a lovely site about 15 minutes away and hide there until my family runs out of food or clean clothes.
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