We’re sure that after 36 years at the helm of Queen West’s fabled Peter Pan (373 Queen W, at Peter, 416-593-0917, peterpanbistro.co), Mary Jackman has occasionally wanted to kill her customers and staff.
She does just that in a literary way with her first murder mystery Spoiled Rotten. In those 229 pages, she assumes the persona of Liz Walker, the wise-cracking owner of a trendy downtown Toronto bistro whose star chef is suspected of butchering a butcher. And no, the chef doesn’t sport a Susur-like ponytail.
“I’ve been writing magazine articles for years but this is my first adult fiction,” says Jackman.
Spoiled Rotten is very much a genre piece. Cars are chased, crosses are doubled, people fall in love and someone ends up poisoned by an appetizer. There’s even a glossary for those unfamiliar with resto lingo. Who knew that “el dente” isn’t a Spanish wrestler but an Italian term meaning “not cooked to mush?”
Jackman sees the book as the first of a series of Liz Walker mysteries. Sounds like a potential Global TV mini-series starring Kim Cattrall.
“The second one’s called Finger Food,” says Jackman. “A Band-aid in your salad is bad enough, but finding a finger is a matter for the police.”
