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Madeline Bean, owner of Mad Bean Events, was about to caterthe wrap party of the very popular television game show, Food Freak, when shewas told that the show was going to do one more episode and the party would bepostponed. Greta Greene, Food Freakıs producer and an old friend, assuredMaddie that the show would still pay for all the food and the work that MadBean Events did and would also hire them to do the new wrap party after thelast episode was filmed. This was just what Madeline wanted to hear. Things were a little slow for not only Mad Bean Events butfor other caterers as well. There were no other events scheduled for herbusiness in the foreseeable future and Madeline and her crew, consistingof co owner Wes and full timeassistant, Holly, werenıt sure where their next pay check would come from. Food Freakıs producer, Greta Greene, had another smallproblem. The head writer of the show, Tim Stock, didnıt know that anotherepisode was going to be ordered and had asked if he could miss the wrap partybecause he needed a vacation and wanted to start on it right away. Now Gretawas without a much needed head writer for the last show. When Greta askedMadeline to become a writer for Food Freak, Madeline jumped at the chance tomake the extra money. Maddie loved being part of the show. Writing and suggestingrecipes for Food Freakıs star, Chef Howie Finkelberg was a joy. Even though things were going smoothly at first, questionsdid start coming up. For instance, just where was head writer, Tim Stock? Gretakept calling and leaving messages asking him to return, but he never returnedher calls. Timıs private office, the one Maddie was using, was ransacked.Scripts and books were tossed all over the place and when Maddie was alonecleaning the office, she was attacked and hit over the head. Not knowing how the assailant could have gotten into theoffice, Maddie and Holly searched and discovered a hidden bedroom behind abookshelf. A copy of a recent food magazine was found hidden under the bed andit was addressed to the missing Tim Stock. They also found $50,000 hidden inall of Timıs books. Adding to all the mysterious goings on, Food Freak producer,Greta Greene, suddenly quit her job and another writer goes missing too.Something strange was going on at the Food Freak studio and Madeline Beanbecame determined to get to the bottom of it. MUMBO GUMBO takes the reader out of Madelineıs kitchen andcatering business to behind the scenes of televisionıs game shows. AuthorJerrilyn Farmer used to write for game shows and she does a wonderful jobdescribing what goes on during the writing, production, and taping of theseprograms. The plot was pleasant and I enjoyed sticking around to findout what happened to the missing writer, Tim Stock. I also got a kick readinghow the game show was involved with drugs, sheep, wool dying, and Kool-Aid. Since this is part of the Mad Bean series we keep in touchwith the regulars: Holly and her boyfriend Donald and we also touch in withMaddieıs on again, off again police boyfriend, Honnet. Of course thereıs lotsof food talk so you might want to make sure you have some snacks close by whenyou read MUMBO GUMBO, because you will get hungry. Youıll enjoy MUMBO GUMBO but be warned, after finishing it youıll be craving more from this wonderful series.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, March 2003
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