Black Petal Press presents

Therapy Can
Be Murder

Come for the murder. Stay for the chef who isn't entirely sure she didn't commit it.

Poison Chef·Book One·Dark Psychological Mystery
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Therapy Can Be Murder - Poison Chef Book One
Psychological Mystery Dark Suspense Culinary Noir

Michelin-starred chef Clara Hastings arrives at her therapist's office expecting an evening that was supposed to end very differently. Instead, she finds him dead.

She cannot account for the hour before she walked in. Six inner voices, her Sauce Committee, each have a theory about where it went. Detective Nathan Cole has one too, and his keeps landing on Clara. Every new body is arranged with a chef's precision, and every clue is plated to point back at her kitchen.

What if she isn't being framed?

Read an Excerpt Buy — $6.99 Meet Clara
Why This Book

ONE DEAD THERAPIST. SIX VOICES. ONE VERY INCONVENIENT DETECTIVE.

The Chef
Clara

Two Michelin stars, impeccable taste, and a memory with an hour missing from it. She steals a notebook from the crime scene before the police arrive, because a woman in couture does not leave without a souvenir.

The Detective
Cole

Homicide. Patient. Suspicious by trade. He reads the missing time, the stolen notebook, and the dead man's secret patients, and every line of it points at the woman he is trying very hard not to want.

The Committee
Six Inner Voices

Espagnole, Velouté, Hollandaise, Roux, Béarnaise, Ganache. They argue over control, men, evidence, trouble, and dessert. Then a seventh voice arrives. Noir does not argue. Noir remembers.

The Question
Framed, or Dangerous?

Someone is arranging bodies like a tasting menu, and the evidence fits Clara too well. Either a killer built a frame around her, or the frame was never needed. She has to find out before Cole does.

The Cast

Meet Them Before You Read Them

Four characters. Click a card to watch its short film.

Poison ChefNo. 96
Clara Hastings
Clara Hastings
Personality
Michelin-starred chef. Razor wit, expensive appetites, control issues she considers a management style.
Intrigue
Cannot remember the hour before she found the body. Is beginning to wonder why the evidence fits her so well.
Click to watch
Poison ChefNo. 64
Detective Nathan Cole
Nathan Cole
Personality
Homicide detective. Professionally suspicious. Increasingly terrible at maintaining appropriate distance from his prime suspect.
Intrigue
Has one rule: solve the case before he kisses the suspect. The rule is not holding.
Click to watch
Poison ChefNo. 63
Orchid
Orchid
Personality
Elegance built from rags. Loves orchids, poison, and death, in roughly that order. Men mistake her beauty for mercy.
Intrigue
Wears a black-and-gold signet ring. Considers Clara the masterpiece she intends to ruin.
Click to watch
Poison ChefNo. 80
Merrick
Merrick
Personality
Old money, weaponized charm, and secrets he has no intention of explaining. Protects Clara with the patience of a man who wants more than gratitude.
Intrigue
Carries a golden key. Seems to already know which doors Clara will open.
Click to watch

Clara is waiting. Read Therapy Can Be Murder on Kindle · $6.99 · free with Kindle Unlimited.

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The Sauce Committee

SIX WOMEN LIVE IN CLARA'S HEAD. NONE OF THEM ARE PARTICULARLY HELPFUL.

Espagnole
Wants control

One flaw and the illusion collapses. She will not allow a flaw.

Velouté
Wants applause

Be everything he wants. Control him so he's yours.

Hollandaise
Wants everyone to stop dying

Trembles. Worries. Is usually right to.

Roux
Wants evidence

Someone else was here before us. File it.

Béarnaise
Wants sex

Finds it. Enjoys it. Rarely apologizes for it.

Ganache
Wants dessert

Can't we just eat the cake? We know how that will taste.

Then Noir arrives. Noir does not want anything.
Noir remembers.

Is This Your Kind of Book?

For readers who like psychological suspense with dark humor, damaged protagonists, dangerous attraction, unreliable perception, and mysteries where the suspect may also be the victim.

The Silent Patient My Sister, the Serial Killer Killing Eve Sharp Objects
If those kept you up, this one will.
A Taste

From Chapter Two

She perched in a chair, lasted forty seconds, then rose again. Straightened magazines into soldiers. Checked her neckline in the glass.

7:00 p.m.

Her turn.

She knocked at Lawson's door.

Silence.

The handle turned under her hand.

"Harry?" Clara eased inside, voice husky. "I was thinking tonight we might—"

She froze.

The cake box wobbled.

Harry Lawson's body lay before her, on his back, exactly in the position she would have wanted him in alive.

"Damn it, Harry," she whispered, disappointed. "I shaved for this."

A beat.

"I was sex-kitten ready."

Another.

"Now I'll have to be homicide-hottie."

Therapy Can Be Murder · Chapter 2: How to Seduce Your Shrink

Want to know what happens next? Keep reading on Kindle · $6.99 · free with Kindle Unlimited.

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Therapy Can Be Murder paperback
Poison Chef · Book One

Take Therapy Can Be Murder Home

Publishes
October 20, 2026
Formats
Kindle ebook, $6.99 · Paperback, $19.99
Series
Poison Chef, Book One of a two-book mystery arc
Book Two
Appetite for Ruin, April 20, 2027
Buy the Kindle Edition — $6.99

Out now on Kindle, and included with Kindle Unlimited. Major revelations occur in this volume; the central mystery finishes in Appetite for Ruin.

Now Choose

Enter the Kitchen

Black Petal Press

Stories With Teeth

Black Petal Press publishes fiction for readers who want to feel something sharp—the slow dread of a locked-room mystery, the dangerous pull of obsession, the ache of a love that survives death itself. Every book keeps you turning pages long past midnight—and lingers long after the final page is closed.

Home to the Poison Chef series and the Eternal Pursuit series, Black Petal Press brings together dark suspense, psychological intrigue, mythic fantasy, romance, and unforgettable characters—with more stories still to come.