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MUMBO GUMBO by Jerrilyn Farmer William Morrow, February 2003 256 pages $19.95 ISBN: 038097889X Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Caterer Madeline Bean, her partner Wesley Westcott, and a kitchen full of chefs are preparing food for the wrap party of Food Freak the new hit quiz / cooking show starring Chef Howie Finkelberg and teams of amateur cooks who vie against each other for a prize of $500,000 given each week.

Greta Greene, Maddy's old school friend and the show's producer turns up and tells Mad that the network has asked for another show at the very last minute. Their head writer, Tim Stock, has left on holiday and cannot be found. They are without a writer for the final show, and would Maddy please come in and help out. Since there are no jobs waiting for Mad Bean Events, Maddy accepts. Greta will pay for both parties, so Mad, Wes, and Holly are pleased.

Wes is content to go back to the house he has been renovating and finish the job so he can sell it. Mad takes the job at Food Freak and meets the strange humans who make up the staff. Farmer's descriptions of the denizens that inhabit the strange world known as Hollywood are spot on. Fate Finkelberg, Howie's wife, (who Maddy takes to be his mother at first) asks Maddy to find out who is Howie's paramour.

Of course things do not go as planned and the taping of the special final show has to be postponed, because someone has broken into Maddy's office and it is feared that the script may have fallen into the wrong hands, thereby compromising the integrity (!) of the show. Maddy brings in Holly, her assistant to help clean the office, and they find a secret room.

Will Maddy find Tim? Will Maddy figure out what is going on with Howie? Will the party turn out to be the usual hit? Read MUMBO GUMBO and find out.