Review - Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block

Ms. Mebel Goes Back 

to the Chopping Block

by Jesse Q. Sutanto

PublisherBerkley

GenreCozy Mystery

FormatKindle ARC

Pages290

Pub. DateApril 29, 2026

Rating⭐⭐⭐⭐

DESCRIPTION

A nearly divorced housewife enrolls in culinary school to win back her husband, only to start questioning the strange antics of her classmates in this new novel from the USA Todaybestselling author of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.

Retirement should mean long-awaited trips to the sapphire waters of Santorini or careening down a sand dune in Dubai. For sixty-three-year-old Mebel, retirement means her husband of more than forty years announcing that he's leaving her for their private chef. Mebel isn’t sure who's the bigger loss.

Not to worry, Mebel has the perfect plan: she’s going to win back her husband. No one knows what he needs better than her—after all, she's been anticipating his needs their whole marriage. And if he wants a wife who can cook (why else would he leave her for a chef?), she will simply go to cooking school. Luckily, class at the renowned Saint Honoré School of Culinary Arts in France starts in just four days!

However, Mebel quickly realizes that her culinary school is not in illustrious Paris but rather in England—and some small village outside of Oxford no less. Despite the less-than-warm welcome from her much younger classmates, Mebel manages to befriend Gemma, the breakout star of the program, who offers to help Mebel on their first day. When Gemma stops showing up to class, Mebel knows she must figure out what—or who—caused her friend’s sudden disappearance. After all, Mebel may not know the first thing about how to cut a potato, but she certainly knows how to identify a fraud, and there’s definitely something fishy going on.

Link to purchase the book

MY THOUGHTS

Ms. Mebel is forced to start her life over again. At sixty-three years old, she must now navigate a single woman after the end of her forty-year marriage. Her husband, Henk, has left her, so starting over in culinary school might be her way back to his heart. After all, he left her for his much-younger personal chef, so Mebel is certain she has found exactly what will win Henk back.

Continental travel does not lead Mebel to the glamorous Paris she expected. In fact, she finds herself in a small, obscure English town near Oxford. Her classmates are decades younger. Fortunately, she strikes a friendship with the talented Gemma, another student in her class. Mebel may have thought that it is cooking that becoming a professional chef would bring her what she needs in life, but who would’ve known that a friendship with a much younger woman would change her entire outlook.

Mebel’s life has truly been transformed. New friends and new talents really build her confidence, but will they also help her discover her own self-worth? While Mebel’s intent was to win back her husband, she lands on something far more. Sometimes, the life we are forced to begin is the one we never knew we needed.

Many thanks to Berkley and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jesse Q. Sutanto grew up shuttling back and forth between Jakarta and Singapore and sees both cities as her homes. She has a Masters degree from Oxford University, though she has yet to figure out a way of saying that without sounding obnoxious. She is currently living back in Jakarta on the same street as her parents and about seven hundred meddlesome aunties. When she's not tearing out her hair over her latest WIP, she spends her time baking and playing FPS games. Oh, and also being a mom to her two kids.

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