After flopping as a personal chef to a Hollywood movie star, jobless Laurel Inwood finds herself humbled in Hubbard, Ohio, helping her aunt Sophie run her restaurant. Much to Laurel's dismay, Sophie's Terminal at the Tracks is not the cozy bistro her aunt would have had her believe--it's a run-down greasy spoon in an old railroad station. To save the dingy diner, Laurel cooks up a plan to feature alternating ethnic cuisine as specials.

But first there's the problem of the body in the booth. Slumped over a table with a receipt spike in his back is Jack Lancer--"the Lance of Justice"--an investigative reporter for local TV news. Assisted by the drop-dead gorgeous owner of the neighboring Irish store--who may or may not be a suspect--Laurel sets out to track down a killer who had no reservations about impaling a newshound. But as she turns up the heat, will she end up in the soup herself?

INCLUDES RECIPES