Accidental Joe: The Top-Secret Life of a Celebrity Chef

One of the Washington Posts 5 mystery novels to savor this summer A maverick celebrity chef reluctantly agrees to let the CIA use his hugely popular international food, culture, and travel TV series as cover for a dangerous espionage mission. When the CIA approaches celebrity chef Sebastian Pike about using his award-winning food and culture travel show as cover for espionage, the outspoken bad-boy host says no. When they point out how roaming the globe interviewing foodies, heads of state, rock stars, journalists-in-exile, poets, subversives, supermodelseven the popegives him perfect cover, Pike smiles and says, F@#! no. They push. Promising its only one mission. Vowing he wont be in danger. Calling him the MVB: Most Valuable Bystander. Theyd embed their top agent in his crew to do the spy work. Its still no. But when they hit him with the patriotism card, he weakens. And when romantic sparks crackle between him and the female agent, Pikes all in, kicking off a romantic spy thriller in which the globetrotting celebrity chef uses his TV series to help sneak Putins accountant out of Russia before hes exposed as a mole for US intelligence. The high-stakes mission quickly puts Pike in harms way. So much for MVB. Theres danger, theres double dealing, theres torture, theres shooting with real bullets. Plus, a minefield of complications from the hot romance that grows between Pike and his gutsy CIA handler-producer, Cammie Nova. From Paris to Provence, this chef is no bystander. Beyond their attraction, Pike and Nova become an operational team, not only to survive the perils they face but to pull off an operation fraught with one twist after another, capped by a shocking, emotional climax.