Who Killed Olive Souffle?

As a first course for the new Crime Files series, Benoit serves up a less than piquant morsel which, though easy to digest, will leave many mystery fans craving more sustenance. When her car skids off the road during a snowstorm, homicide detective Angel Cardoni seeks shelter at a nearby inn. There she is greeted by the hokily named Olive Souffle, a gastronome with ""wild orange hair and vivid green eyes""--and a French accent that would do Inspector Clouseau proud: ""I ham a chef,"" she insists when Angel asks if she is a cook. Awakened by screams at dawn, Angel finds Olive's corpse in the walk-in freezer and sets out (using largely kitchen equipment for her analysis) to determine whodunit from among the inn's employees and neighbors. Though Angel's point-blank detective's monologue reveals some undeniably astute--and sometimes slick--observations (of the inn's owner, she observes, ""I could imagine him greeting his rich resort guests with so much greasy charm they might slip down the stairs""), the mystery's all-adult cast, analyses that read like a series of science experiments and an anticlimactic finale may not satiate young readers. Ages 10-up. (Sept.)