Olivia ("Ollie") Paras is the White House executive chef. As such, her goal is to create and execute the best cuisine for the First Family. At the beginning of the book, she is paired with the White House sensitivity director, Peter Everett Sargeant, to plan a birthday event for the Secretary of State. Although Ollie and Sargeant don't typically get along (actually, Sargeant doesn't get along well with anyone), the First Lady's assistant insisted that they work together on this assignment.

However, as they check out Lexington Place (a potential venue for the event) they find not one but two dead bodies - - the chief of staff and the First Lady's assistant. Even more ominous than finding the bodies, however, is the realisation that they may have seen the killer making his getaway from the crime scene.

Ollie is warned not to get involved. Her ex-boyfriend (a member of the Secret Service protection detail) is all too familiar with her penchant to nose around in affairs, and although Ollie is curious about Sargeant's nephew, Milton. Milton keeps popping up convinced that he has information about the murders. Sargeant brushes this off as the ramblings of an unstable man who has never been able to hold a job and is all too eager to get a job in the White House at any cost.

But once Ollie catches a suspicious character following her and then she realises that someone has broken into her house, things start looking much more serious. Could Milton actually know something? How much danger is Ollie in? Will Ollie and Sargeant be able to put their long-standing differences aside to work together to solve this mystery?

AFFAIRS OF STEAK is both fun and intriguing. It gives enough of an insider's peak into the inner workings of the White House without being boring while still keeping the action moving. The characters were all interesting and the annoying ones were just annoying enough (in other words, I knew who to love to hate). One annoying subplot was the are-they-or- aren't-they romance between Ollie and her beau. However, this was not annoying enough to take away from the overall enjoyment of the book, and I will keep my eye out for other books in the White House Chef Mystery Series.

Book Summary

White House chef Olivia Paras and her arch nemesis, White House Sensitivity Director Peter Everett Sargeant, must work together to solve the double murder of one of the First Lady's assistants and the Chief of Staff-before they become the next victims of a merciless assassin with a secret agenda.