Mad Bean Events snagged the catering event of the year. The highly-popular reality television cooking series Food Freak is wrapping for the season. Madeline Bean's company is handling the affair. When the party is over, however, Madeline's calendar is empty. She needs some bookings in order to put food on her own table.
Fortune arrives in an unusual manner. Food Freak is now filming one last episode. The head writer is missing and producer Greta Greene wants her friend Madeline to fill in.
The world of reality television is anything but real. Madeline manages to meets many interesting characters despite the deadlines to which she's held. At one point, the office she's using is trashed and she's conked over the head by an unknown suspect. Is it Tim, the missing writer or someone else? And what does this person want from the messy office?
Madeline Bean thought she was taking prestigious writing job on television's most popular series. If she's not careful, she just may be in danger in Mumbo Gumbo.
This is the fifth installment in Jerrilyn Farmer's popular catering mystery series. Madeline has developed nicely since her debut in Sympathy for the Devil. The author uses the Hollywood backdrop to pepper each tale with celebrities and other off-beat characters.
Farmer puts the fictitious Food Freak set on the real KTLA lot. Readers will enjoy the author's early Hollywood history lessons as well as Madeline's tendency to wander behind the scenes.
As with earlier installments like Sympathy for the Devil and Immaculate Reception, Farmer asks readers to accept some far-fetched occurrences. The reason behind the conflict is hard to swallow as is the swift resolution. Still, the road on which Farmer leads readers in Mumbo Gumbo is highly entertaining. Madeline Bean's adventures always make fun weekend reads.
