Lots of writers, from Margaret Truman on down, have written mysteries and thrillers that use the White House as the locale. But no one, until last year, has centered her mysteries in the White House kitchen, with the chef as the sleuth.
Chicagoan Julie Hyzy developed the concept, and it’s proved to be a winner with readers. If you don’t know her and her work, here’s your chance to get acquainted. Read on.
Chicago mystery writer takes the White House
Julie Hyzy started as one of the Five Star All Stars, with her first three books published by the Gale/Cengage imprint Five Star. Then last year she jumped a new series to Berkley Prime Crime—her White House chef mystery series.
State of the Onion, the first book, gathered lots of good press and won Love Is Murder’s 2009 Lovey Award for best traditional mystery.
“Who better than the executive chef in the White House to hear all the goings on?” Hyzy says of the story concept. “The staff at the White House is in contact with the First Family and with visiting heads of state all the time. If you are going to have an amateur sleuth, what better place to put that character than at the center of the world—in the White House?”
That’s how Ollie Paras came to be.
A bit of background. Walter Scheib was the White House’s executive chef at the beginning of the recent Bush presidency. Scheib found himself fired, and Laura Bush then appointed Cristeta Comerford as the executive chef, the first woman to hold that job.
Hyzy’s Ollie Paras and Comerford are alike in some ways. Both are short. And Comerford is Filipino as Paras may be, although that hasn’t been decided yet, Hyzy says, even though she’s finished writing the third book in the series. And both women are darn good at their jobs.
For the record, Hail to the Chef is book 2 in the series. It came out last December.
The kitchen in the White House chef series is based on the real White House kitchen. Although Hyzy’s never seen it, she has done a lot of research and has been told she’s gotten her descriptions right. Hyzy has gone to the White House as a tourist. She took the standard tour, but it didn’t include a swing through the kitchen.
“I keep hoping,” she says. “The next time I go to the White House, I’m going to wrap my foot and say I can’t do stairs because the elevator is right there. I’ll have to go through the kitchen to get to the elevator.”
If you are a foodie, don’t expect to get a lot of personal recipes from Hyzy’s books. Food isn’t as big a factor in her books as it is in the books of others who write culinary mysteries.
“I’m not a professional chef,” Hyzy says, “but I have a ghost chef. I get recipes from her and intersperse them in the stories as Ollie is preparing things, but I don’t spend a lot of time on the food because I want to move the mystery along. I believe people are reading this series for the story, so I stick to the story.”
Food does rise in importance in book 3, Eggsecutive Orders. Someone eats something Ollie makes and dies. Hyzy will say no more until the book is out in January of next year.
She joined the ranks for published novelists in 2004 when Five Star brought out her first book, Artistic License. Then came Deadly Blessings (2005), the first in her Alex St. James mysteries, St. James a news researcher in Chicago. Next came Deadly Interest (2006) and then Dead Ringer (2008), the last co-written with friend and fellow Chicago crime writer, Michael Black. Most of the books, like State of the Onion, won Lovey awards.
In the writing community, Hyzy is the current president of the Midwest chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. As the president, she also serves on MWA’s national board of directors. Both positions come to an end at the end of the year when current chapter vice president Tony Perona is expected to step into the top office.
You can find out more about Hyzy and her books at her website. Here’s the link: juliehyzy.com.
© Jerry Peterson.
