Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin | Book Review

“First rule of butchery: off with his head.”

When chef Paul Delamare agrees to help his old friend Christian by teaching at an exclusive residential cookery school in Belgravia, the only thing he expects his students to murder is his taste buds. But on the first night, the unthinkable happens: someone turns up dead.

Could one of his students be the killer? Or Rose – the owner of the school, a woman with secrets and a murky past? The police are convinced Paul is the culprit. After all, he’s good with a blade, was first on the scene – and everyone knows what chefs are really like.

The students are sharpening their knives and if Paul can’t solve the mystery fast – as well as teach them how to make a perfect hollandaise sauce – he’ll be next to get the chop.

Before I could even get to the blurb, I was reeled in by the title and the cover. One look and I hit the request button on NetGalley as hard, and fast, as I could.

Knife Skills for Beginners is a cosy mystery with an unlikeable character who is murdered, and the unlikeliest person expected to get involved – the chef – who takes it upon himself to solve the case. With the clock ticking and walls closing in, he has his hands full with a bizarre selection of candidates making up his suspect pool. But, of course, together they bring both comedy and suspense to the story.

If you are remotely interested in cooking, this book has a handful of recipes with some sure-fire tips and tricks to up your game in the kitchen. It was fun to visualise the protagonist working his way around the kitchen while chasing clues to solve the case. Reading the book was one thing but I couldn’t resist discussing all the cookery bits with my mom a.k.a our resident masterchef.

I loved the premise of the story and how the author played with words to add humour. My absolute favourite character here was Julie – Paul’s editor who commissions him for freelance work with a food magazine every month. I’d love to get into Julie’s head, if only to pick up her flair for writing coded text messages. Those were a most innovative mystery by themselves.

All things point to this becoming a series and I am definitely excited to see where the author takes Paul next, hopefully with Julie continuing to keep him safe and grounded. Until then, this is a unique page turner, perfect to use as an excuse to leave everything aside and simply relax with your favourite food and drink.

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin. Due to be published on 1st February 2024 by Transworld Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK. This ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Transworld Publishers.

Book 33 of 2023.

Aquamarine Flavours Rating: 🌟🌟🌟.

Available on Amazon*.

About Photo: The Chester Square Cookery School prides itself in teaching the basics to amateurs wishing to take their culinary skills to the next level.

Keeping with the title, I decided to take the simplest approach for this project, going with a standard chef’s knife and a chopping board.

Both items are cut from 220gsm cardstock using reference images for scale.

About the Author: After being flung into the culinary limelight as a semi-finalist on MasterChef, Orlando Murrin edited BBC Good Food for six years and founded Olive magazine; then switched track to become a chef-hotelier in SW France and Somerset.

He has written seven cookbooks and is President of the Guild of Food Writers. An ever-popular guest on TV and radio, he presents the BBC Good Food Podcast with Tom Kerridge.

From his grandfather, a Met detective who rose to become a crack MI5 interrogator, he inherited a fascination with crime and mystery.

He lives in domestic bliss in Exeter, Devon, and this is his first novel.
You can connect with him on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

 

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*Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link which means, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.