AFTERTASTE

A chef who can cook food that reunites diners with their deceased loved ones finds out that’s not such a great idea.

A year after his father’s unexpected death, 11-year-old Konstantin “Kostya” Duhovny mysteriously gets the taste of his father’s favorite food, pechonka, in his mouth. As an adult, wracked with guilt because he and his father quarreled at their last meeting, tortured by memories of being a social outcast in school and of a mother who simply stopped coping after losing her husband, Kostya gets by with menial jobs and binge-eating, baffled by the mysterious ability whose purpose he doesn’t know. Until one night, mistaken for the bartender in a speakeasy where he washes dishes, he gets the taste of a drink in his mouth—the favorite drink of a drunken customer’s dead wife. He mixes it, and the wife’s ghost appears. Both spirit and widower seem to get closure from this final meeting, although Maura Struk, the psychic Kostya consults about his gift, warns him, “Don’t ever make their food again…you’re no match for the Afterlife.” Kostya ignores her advice when sinister Russian businessman (read: gangster) Viktor Musizchka offers him the chance to become a very special kind of restaurateur, making dishes to summon their ghosts for grieving survivors—for a hefty price. Even Maura, who re-enters the novel to become the love of his life, encourages him, and Kostya seems bound for success. Of course, things are not so simple, and debut novelist Lavelle spins a twisty plot filled with mouthwatering descriptions of food and some very hungry ghosts. Both Maura and Viktor have dark hidden motives, and the hilarious running narration between chapters of “The Konstantin Duhovny Culinary Experience” by his best friend, Frankie (the novel’s most vivid character), in time reveals itself as another menacing element. The catastrophic opening night of Kostya’s restaurant provides a bravura climax, followed by a poignant final twist.

A tasty variation on the supernatural thriller.