Monster's Chef
A Novel
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2.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
From award-winning, Los Angeles Times bestselling author Jervey Tervalon comes a highly clever, twisting tale of suspense involving drugs, perverse sex, and poisonous celebrity worship, in which a man trying to rebuild his life becomes entangled in dangerous and deadly circumstances.
Once upon a time, Gibson was a successful chef with a popular restaurant and a beautiful loving wife. He was also a drug addict with a habit that nearly destroyed him.
Fresh out of rehab, he’s now using his skills to feed his fellow halfway house residents budget gourmet meals—a talent that attracts two shady women who offer him a job cooking for a music superstar named Monster. Though Gibson doesn’t have a good feeling about his seeming good fortune, he needs a job.
Arriving on Monster’s compound, Gibson senses that trouble is still on his tail. First, he’s asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. Then he meets the compound’s gardener, who warns him not to go outside at night—and tells him that to stay alive he must see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing.
It is advice that proves all too true when Gibson discovers a dead body near his bungalow a few nights later. Suddenly, all hell is breaking loose . . . and Gibson is at the center. Now he has to figure out how to escape this terrifying nightmare . . . and whether he can.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the center of this moderately suspenseful novel from Tervalon (Dead Above Ground) is Monster, a Michael Jackson like eccentric recluse who has surrounded himself with well-paid flunkies in a remote mountain retreat. Gibson, who is on parole and resides in a halfway house, is a former drug addict determined to stay on the straight and narrow and regain what he lost to his addiction: his wife and his successful New York City restaurant. He earns his keep by cooking for the other halfway house residents. The woman who runs the home, Asha, is impressed by his culinary skills, and she helps Gibson get a job as Monster's chef a cooking gig unlike any he's had, and one that eventually involves dead bodies. Tervalon writes evocatively of eccentricity that borders on madness, but his characters, while believable, aren't interesting enough to hold readers' attention. Those who can focus on the psychological components of the story are more likely to be entertained.
