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Updated: March 6, 2012 8:10AM

Hyzy serves up another winner

Readers familiar with Julie Hyzy’s White House Chef series will toast her latest serving.

In Affairs of Steak (Berkley, $7.99), White House Chef Olivia (Ollie) Paras and her nemesis, Peter Sargeant, the WH sensitivity director, discover the murdered bodies of a young WH assistant and the Chief of Staff stuffed inside two large skillets. In a second incident, she also comes to the aid of the Secretary of State’s father-in-law, who may have been abducted.

Ollie’s well-deserved reputation for nosiness has her poking into the murders, especially since she and Peter Sargeant have apparently become the next targets. They are also teamed for a project, and it drives both of them nuts, though astute readers will perceive the undercurrent of rapprochement.

The book is overstuffed with subplots: Sargeant’s nephew Martin, a ne’er-do-well in the wrong place at the wrong time is the device that gets the story going, kicks it along later, and brings Ollie and Sargeant together, making Martin’s short stay centerstage significant.

There are also the usual kitchen intrigues, mostly provided by an arrogant chef hired by the first lady to handle the family’s private meals. He’s a classic piece of work and you anxiously wait for his comeuppance.

There is also Ollie’s ongoing frustrations with Secret Service agent Leonard Gavin (Gav), who seems to have significant commitment issues. I found this the slowest part of the book and, frankly, I would happily trade the dude in for someone with a heartbeat.

Randy Michael Signor

‘Defending Jacob’
top-notch legal thriller

An assistant district attorney receives a case that will change his life in William Landay’s Defending Jacob (Delacorte, $26).

Andrew Barber has a beautiful wife, a wonderful son, Jacob, and great friends and colleagues. Then the murder of a 14-year-old boy in the woods near a school changes everything.

When the victim’s classmates are interviewed, a terrifying pattern emerges: All the students seem to be elusive when authorities question them.

Then Jacob is charged with murder. Friends become enemies, and Barber becomes unemployed. His family life begins to crumble as he desperately tries to solve the case on his own and prove his son’s innocence. The evidence begins to mount against Jacob, and when the courtroom battle begins, Barber has to face the man he trained and had considered a friend.

Secrets, political agendas and an examination of how tenuous life can be are all examined in the social microscope of the media and public opinion.

Landay has written a legal thriller that’s comparable to classics such as Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. Jacob comes across as somewhat of an enigma, but the other characters and the story line ring true.

Tragic and shocking, Defending Jacob is sure to generate buzz.

Jeff Ayers / AP

Note:

William Landay will discuss and sign Defending Jacob , 2 p.m. Feb. 5 at Barnes & Noble, 55 Old Orchard Center, Skokie.