Poor gourmet chef Dylan Neal was really getting exasperated with his police detective bestie Brooke Burns with her constant reference to a rare chef's book of his recipe secrets as a cookbook. What's gone on the market at an auction house is one of those from a really classy San Francisco restaurant back in the day. But when our sleuths go to a rare book dealer who purchased the item, the dealer's employee is found murdered.

As in all the Gourmet Detective movies, Burns and Neal go through the Bay City's culinary scene looking for clues and culprits. A second murder happens as some folks want this book real bad.

The contents are quite interesting and here's a hint. That former classy dining spot had some interesting ingredients the chef used in some dishes.

Nicely done story, the perpetrator had quite an operation to protect.

Another cheap Hallmark redux of the formula crime series for bored housewives. 99% of scene time is just talking & even the dialogue is middle school graduate level. Script the usual food, romance, and mystery - all the hooks. Actors all have heavy makeup & designer fashion, never gets dirty & always wrinkle free, clothing (even a wardrobe change with practically every scene change). We get one crime moment (brief) with a very fake studio prop gun. Acting worse than even daytime soap.

Sorry Dylan Neal and Brooke Burns but this recipe about a family heirloom restaurant cookbook should have stayed buried forever rather than being discovered and auctioned off before another murder occurred. I felt the romantic spark between Maggie (Brooke Burns) and Henry Ross (Dylan Neal) was so superficial (right down to their sprayed hair-do's and caked on make up) that it became irritating the constant banter between the two of them.

As for Henry's elder statesman dad, Jim Ross (Bruce Boxleitner) running the father and son restaurant I felt his role was meaningless and he added nothing in the form of fatherly advice to his son Henry, nor any off setting intended humour to this supposed mystery theater production.

Overall I was disappointed with Dylan Neal himself, who had previously delivered more interesting roles and films, until this bomb. Something burned badly in the Ross's kitchen this time, and maybe it was the heirloom cookbook everyone was trying to get their greedy hands on, but more likely it was the end of film script burning by the cast.

I give it a 4 out of 10 IMDB rating.