Affairs of Steak
by Julie Hyzy

White House executive chef Olivia Paras just wants to create first class cuisine for the First Family. Unfortunately, dangerous politics keep spoiling her recipes...

Assigned to work with her arch nemesis, Peter Everett Sargeant, the White House Sensitivity Director, Ollie must find a venue for an event to honor the Secretary of State. Instead they find one of the First Lady’s assistants and the Chief of Staff, both murdered — and Ollie and Peter may have witnessed the killer making his getaway.

News reports suggest that the assistant and Chief of Staff were having an affair, but no one on the staff believes the rumor. Now, with their jobs—and their lives—in jeopardy, Ollie and Peter must depend on each other to learn who killed their colleagues and why—before they become the next victims of a merciless assassin with a secret agenda...

Other Books by Julie Hyzy

Foreign Éclairs
A White House Chef Mystery #9

Grace Cries Uncle
A Manor House Mystery #6

The Cozy Cookbook
More than 100 Recipes from Today's Bestselling Mystery Autho

All the President's Menus
A White House Chef Mystery #8

Grace Against the Clock
A Manor House Mystery #5

Inaugural Parade
The White House Chef Mysteries

Home of the Braised
A White House Chef Mystery #7

Grace Takes Off
A Manor House Mystery #4

Fonduing Fathers
A White House Chef Mystery #6

Grace Among Thieves
A Manor House Mystery #3

Grace Interrupted
A Manor House Mystery #2

Buffalo West Wing
A White House Chef Mystery #4

Grace Under Pressure
A Manor of Murder Mystery #1

Eggsecutive Orders
A White House Chef Mystery #3

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Julie Hyzy's Bio

Julie Hyzy's first experience with food included flipping burgers and chopping onions at a neighborhood hot dog stand. She traded that experience for a job as a singing waitress at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour—but gave that up when she started college (and because she couldn't carry a tune).

Over the years, she's acted in community theater productions, appeared in television commercials, and crashed a previously all-male fraternity to become one of the first female brothers in Loyola University's Chapter of Delta Sigma Pi. Julie had dreams of becoming a writer, but family, friends, and frat brothers convinced her otherwise. Having held positions as junior officer at a downtown bank, office manager at an architectural firm, and financial advisor at a prestigious wealth management company, she realizes that the business degree was probably a good choice—but fiction is truly her passion. Now, with some well-earned life experience behind her, she's delighted to finally be able to make writing a priority in her life.

Julie's first novel, Artistic License, a stand-alone romantic suspense (Five Star) won the Love Is Murder Readers' Choice Award (Lovey) for Best First Novel in 2004. It was subsequently released in both large print and trade paperback. Her next novel, Deadly Blessings (June 2005), was the first in her mystery series featuring Chicago-based reporter Alex St. James. Deadly Interest, the second in the series, garnered great reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, and won a Lovey for Best Traditional/Amateur Sleuth in 2007. Julie's short stories have won awards, too. Most recently, her "Strictly Business" from the Bleak House anthology These Guns For Hire, won the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Derringer Award in the Longer-short story category.

Coming up in January 2008 is a brand-new series. The first book is titled State of the Onion. It features White House Chef, Olivia Paras, who feeds the First Family... and saves the world in her spare time ;-) To research it, Julie visited the White House, spoke with a former White House chef, took cooking lessons, and learned to shoot a variety of firearms. She's currently working on the second book in the series.

Currently, Julie is the Vice President of the Midwest Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. She's always juggling several projects at once, but makes it a point to write every day.