If You Can't Stand the Heat | Now Available

Former chef turned public health inspector Poppy Markham hates favors. She hates doing them and she hates asking for them. But when her father asks her to help out in the family restaurant for one special night, she can’t say no. And that’s when the trouble starts.

A couple of hours into the grand re-opening celebration of Markham’s Grille & Cocktails, guest chef and European bad boy, Évariste Bontecou, is murdered. Poppy’s territorial stepsister, Ursula York, swears she didn’t do it, but the evidence against her is pretty solid: it was her knife sticking out of Évariste’s heart.

Despite serious doubts about Ursula’s innocence, Poppy begins investigating the only people who had access to Ursula’s knife—the restaurant staff. Using her talents as a world-class snoop, honed to perfection in her day job as a public health inspector, Poppy begins uncovering things people want to keep hidden.

As Poppy gets closer to the truth, the hotter things get. And as everyone knows: if you can’t stand the heat, you should stay out of the kitchen.