Calculated Loss

by Linda L. Richards

It's been years since former stockbroker Madeline Carter bothered thinking about her gastronomically gifted ex-husband, Chef Braydon Gauthier. Between quitting her soul-sucking career and discovering what life is like during daylight hours she's been kind of busy. But when Madeline learns Braydon took his own life, she drops everything and hightails it to the funeral. It doesn't take long to realize Braydon's death is more murder than suicide. Madeline...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0778323455
• ISBN13: 9780778323457
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Mira Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

A tasty delight!

In Calculated Loss, Madeline Carter, an intelligent and somewhat humorous former stockbroker, investigates the suspicious suicide of her ex-husband Braydon Gauthier, a man who had seemingly become someone completely different from the man she had married. Remarried and far more successulf than Madeline had ever known, Braydon apparently committed suicide because of a lost star in the restautrant rating business. But his note and last meal are definitely suspect, especially since Madeline knew Braydon well enough to know he'd never eat duck a l'orange. She is hired by her ex-mother-in-law to look into Braydon's business, but Madeline finds more than some cooked books. And as the suspects line up in a long row, she finds herself in a precarious position. Filled with interesting characters and witty humor, Calculated Loss is a crash course in stocks and pinks, day trading and the world of haute cuisine. Linda L. Richards has penned another sensational, tasty mystery that will take you through the city of Vancouver in such rich detail you'd swear you were standing there. From one Canadian author to another, kudos, Linda! Cheryl Kaye Tardif Author of Divine Intervention

An Exciting and Fun Thriller

I've long enjoyed the Madeline Carter series by Linda L. Richards, as she manages to do what I thought was impossible. Namely, make the intricacies of finance and day trading not only understandable, but incredibly fascinating. With CALCULATED LOSS, Richards shares with the reader not only the details and stresses of day trading but also the incredibly entertaining world of professional cooking and celebrity chefs. When Madeline hears that her ex-husband has committed suicide, she's plunged back into her bittersweet memories of a marriage she left when her professional ambitions combated with Braydon Gauthier's more lackadaisical approach to life. Since the end of their marriage Bray's life completely changed though, as he eventually became a celebrity chef with his own television cooking shows, bestselling cookbooks, frozen food line, and numerous restaurants. But the loss of a star of his flagship restaurant apparently caused him to poison himself, leaving his mother and sister shattered and requesting Madeline's help in figuring out the family's complex corporation. The family also awakens doubts about whether Bray really did kill himself, a suspicion Madeline excuses as grief until she hears the method of Bray's poisoning. Believing that he would never had consumed a last meal of duck with orange sauce (how cliché!), Madeline begins to explore the murky practices of Gauthier Fine Foods and the new life Bray created without her. This is a wonderfully engaging novel that entertains the reader with food and finance information while never giving short thrift to the plot or characters. Madeline's realization that her memories of the Braydon conflict with the man he became is both bittersweet and realistic and adds considerable depth to a Madeline, who has grown more and more likeable with each new novel. This is a very witty series that continues to improve and leave readers eagerly awaiting each new installment into the life of Madeline Carter.

A middle-of-the-pack mystery, naive, but no more than most

Overall, "Calculated Loss" is a middling mystery novel: middling in plot, middling in memorability. There is no particular reason to shout its praise, nor is there reason to denounce it for any unforgivable sins. As light-weight mysteries go, "Calculated Loss" is rather slow-moving. Some writers write short. Others write long. Linda Richards is one of the latter, sometimes achieving Jamesian (P. D., not Henry) ponderousness. At the beginning of Chapter 17, for example, she uses 294 words in six paragraphs to say, in effect, "I woke up. It was Monday and still raining. I took a hot shower and then made a cup of coffee. I wasn't in the mood to work at my computer." Now, let me be clear on this point, there is nothing wrong or even objectionable about the manner in which Ms. Richards wrote her book: it's just slower than it might otherwise be. And it makes Richards' "Calculated Loss" a 409 page book, when it might in other hands have been a 250 pager. This is a book for the many, many readers who seek a pleasant way to pass some time while traversing familiar literary territory. Here, a more-or-less financially independent young woman learns of the untimely death of an old acquaintance; she develops suspicions about the circumstances of that death, investigates (lightheartedly committing a felony or two while gathering information), offers lame explanations for her willful refusal to inform the police or anyone else in authority, becomes endangered herself, and manages to tie up all the loose ends in the final chapter. In short, been there, done that, but I'll probably be picking up another book very much like it ... soon. As I said, a middling book, but even middling mysteries are fully capable of providing hours of solid pleasure to the well-disposed reader, so I am assigning four stars as my rating. But... It was not until I actually started reading the book that I discovered it held elements of particular interest to me. The main action of the novel takes place right here in my own city of Vancouver. (The cover illustration shows a color-enhanced photo of the Downtown Core of the city, neatly silhouetted against the nearby mountains.) Ms. Richards demonstrates a pretty good notion of the actual layout of the place, making the meanderings of her protagonist through the city quite easy to follow. The city's streetscapes are very much as the author describes them. Expensive condos are located in the right places, as are poorly built, catastrophically leaking ones. Kitsilano is accurately portrayed as a funky but basically pleasant neighborhood and parts of the Downtown Eastside are correctly condemned as a festering disgrace to such a prosperous and orderly city. On the other hand, Ms. Richards has clearly been mainlining entirely too much of the Visitors Bureau's tourism propaganda. When Madeline first arrives at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), she steps outside to sniff the British Columbian air: "This is

fascinating amateur sleuth

When she hears the news that her celebrity chef and former spouse Braydon Gauthier committed suicide, day trader Madeline Carter is shocked because that seems so out of character for the upbeat bigger than life gourmand. Feeling an obligation and having divorced amiably, Madeline attends Braydon's funeral in Vancouver while wondering why he killed himself. However, when she learns he killed himself by dining on a poisoned duck a l'orange and beef Shiraz, Madeline knows instantly he was murdered. She tries to explain to the local police her rationale, but they blow her away as a griever in denial. Knowing Braydon would never have had that type of combination that separately are delights but together kills the palate, she begins investigating starting with his finance even as someone watches her closely to insure if she seems too close to uncovering the truth, a second suicide of a the grieving "widow" will follow. CALCULATED LOSS is a fascinating amateur sleuth tale starring a heroic protagonist whose logic for why Braydon died is odd, but shows she knew her ex spouse. When the police tell her to forget it, Madeline cannot; so she begins her inquiries seeking a motive as to why someone poisoned the gourmet chef. Linda L. Richards provides a delicious Vancouver whodunit that never slows down until the final meal is served. Harriet Klausner