Beat until Stiff
About this audiobook
Pastry chef Mary Ryan has sunk a lot of time and talent into the American Fare, San Francisco’s hottest spot, while grieving over her broken marriage. Then, arriving at work very early one day, she discovers a laundry bag stuffed with the dead body of one of her employees. The ensuing investigation soon exposes all of the dirty secrets that the food industry would like to keep hidden—philandering chefs, illegal aliens, and subsistence-level pay scales. Events begin to spiral and in time take out the restaurant’s celebrity chef and force Mary to use her unique skills to uncover a poisonous scheme.
About the author
Claire M. Johnson completed the California Culinary Academy’s program for professional chefs in 1983 and worked as a pastry chef in San Francisco and Oakland for eight years. Her first novel, Beat until Stiff, won the 1999 Malice Domestic Writer’s Grant. She lives in Lafayette, California, with her husband, two children, and numerous animals.
Christine Williams is a singer and actor based in Ashland, Oregon. Her performance credits include productions at regional theaters and on concert stages across the country and around the world, from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Barbican Centre in London to the Aspen Music Festival and the Grotowski Institute in Poland.
