Book Journal Of Fitness Kills By Helen Barer
Oct 31st, 2009 by Reading and Writing
Food writer, or Foodie, because they are known in the trade, Nora Franke is overfed and overwrought over a recent breakup using her long time boyfriend. “We need a break” he tells her, Nora decides that spending some period away from the bustle of New York is simply the tonic she needs. Her solution is to take a temporary job because recipe consultant at a ritzy and very exclusive Spa in Baja. Nora is ecstatic, three months inside a beautiful location and able to combine her love of food with the always pressing require to shed the results of too many gourmet adventures inside Fresh York.
Life at a Health Spa is much like life on a Cruise Ship, time becomes compressed, most of the guests are only there for a week. Friendships that would normally develop over weeks or months, develop in minutes, alas also do animosities. Nora finds herself extra usual by the guests than the staff, and is speedily drawn into a group of loosely connected friends that come to the Spa every year for any days of relaxation and reflection. This group of opulent and seemingly wealthy friends readily accepts Nora as if they have known her because kindergarten.
The setting seems idyllic for something bad to happen, and Helen Barer is only the author to do it! Helen herself is no stranger to the world of writing, she has a number of cook books to her credit, but this is her first foray into the murder mystery genre.
The first cracks in the Louis Vuitton luggage occurs the next morning when the body of Alan is found, inside what appears to be a climbing accident on a nearby mountain. What Nora notices is the different reactions from the members of the group, from grief, to indifference, to possibly something extra sinister. In the 50 years that the exclusive retreat has been in existence this is the first death the ranch has always experienced, sprained ankles, and a mild heart attack from higher than exertion held the previous record.
There is a second death, one that can not be explained away as an accident. Now Nora is pulled into the web of deceit, what is going on, and who is responsible for these two deaths?
Nora is on the scent! She has no investigative training, just a dogged thirst to discover the fact. Of course this might not be the finest ‘recipe’ for a long life!
I liked this book a lot, I consider this is a very fine first era effort, small enough at 200 pages to be a quick read, but long sufficient to develop the characters well. I suspect that we will be seeing extra of Nora Franke inside future books by Helen Barer. If you are looking for a fun and quickly murder mystery I can recommend that you try Fitness Kills.
Fitness Kills is the first inside a series of cozy mysteries by Helen Barer. Helen spent lots of years since a writer of non-fiction material, ranging from cookbooks to television documentaries. She is presently at work writing her next Nora Franke mystery.
