The Chef

by K.L. Slater, Annabel Scholey (Narrator), Laura Aikman (Narrator)

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

When private chef, Isla Merrin accepts a summer position at Maplehurst Manor, she's not there for the prestige or the pay. She's there because her twin sister Clemmie worked in these kitchens and weeks after leaving, took her own life.

Nestled in the exclusive hills of the Cotswolds, behind Maplehurst's honey-stone walls and manicured lawns lies a darker truth. Staff members flee in terror. Young women disappear into silence. And all the while, the show goes on.

As Isla uncovers a pattern of abuse hidden beneath layers of wealth, surveillance and privilege, she realises Clemmie wasn't the first victim and won't be the last. But exposing the truth means playing a dangerous game with people who are always one step ahead.

Some secrets are worth dying for. Others are worth killing to protect.

From international best-seller, K L Slater comes another gripping psychological thriller about power, complicity, and one woman's quest for justice, narrated by Annabel Scholey (RIVALS, THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR) and Laura Aikman (GAVIN & STACEY).

Genres: Audiobook, Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Crime

Audible Audio

Published July 9, 2026

About the author

Kim is the number one bestselling author of sixteen psychological crime thrillers. She has sold over two million copies of her books worldwide. She has also written four Carnegie-nominated Young Adult novels as Kim Slater for Macmillan Children’s Books. Kim has an MA in Creative Writing and lives with her husband in a small Nottinghamshire village.

Publishers: Bookouture, Sphere, Grand Central, Audible
Agent: Camilla Bolton at Darley Anderson

Author website: www.KLSlaterAuthor.com
Twitter: @KimLSlater
Facebook: KL Slater Author
Instagram: KLSlaterAuthor

Reviews

[Bo.reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

With private chef Isla taking a job at Maplehurst Manor, where her twin sister Clemmie had worked before her death, The Chef sounded like it could make for a tense psychological thriller. Hoping to find out what really happened to her sister, Isla begins digging into her time at the manor, but despite the promising setup, this ended up being a pretty boring listen for me.

Even as things started coming together, I was still waiting for something to really pull me in, and it just never happened. Too much either didn’t make sense, felt far too convenient or was never properly explained, leaving me with more questions than answers by the end. There were so many plot holes and loose ends that I was genuinely wondering how the audiobook made it to release without anyone picking up on them.

The ending felt rushed and wrapped everything up far too easily, leaving very little to redeem the rest of the story for me. By the time I finished the audiobook, I was left wondering what on earth I’d just listened to and wishing I could get those hours back.

[Cecily - MillennialBookGal · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 Stars

A bit of a slow start and a bit repetitive in the middle but the ending was pretty good.

Not my favorite K. L. Slater novel but still kept my interest all the way through.

The character development was mid range, I definitely could have used more so I could care more about them. In that way it felt a bit rushed.

The accent is okay in the audiobook. A little thicker at times but listenable.

Okay read.

[Nada · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give this 0 stars, I would. I don’t tend to write reviews when I am angry, but I did not DNF this thinking it might redeem itself but who am I kidding? The ending was even worse.
So many unexplained plot lines … ridiculous plot. The house is made into this big mystery but it was literally so so so predictable! I kept telling myself it can’t be this really predictable storyline …. It had to have more substance to it but nooooo.

I loved one book by K.L Slater, but every other book after that was a super let down. It’s time for me to give up on this author.

Spoilers:

How the fuck are they twins but no one could see the resemblance??? Is everyone stupid or blind? She actually points her sister out in one of the pictures and still… no one can recognize that they are siblings???? Let alone tWIns? 🥰
Why do they both have different last names ? Never explained.
How did this top security super secretive and private estate hire Isla without running a simple background check on her? :)
So stupid so anticlimactic.
The ending was the worst. Isla kills James and gets away Scott free. Great the bastard is dead but there is no way on earth she could have walked away free afterwords.

Let’s also forget that no one edited this. One scene Isla tells Alice about her sister. And then suddenly it’s “omg how did Alice know we were sisters omg??😱 “ FFS….
Also what was that diary entry all about?? What did this prove? What did it add to the plot? Was it resolved? Haha ofc not.

[michelle goik · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Trigger warning: Sexual assault.

Give me an executive chef armed with razor sharp knives and a mission for revenge and I’m in. 🔪🍽️ Isla takes a job with the same wealthy family her twin sister worked for before her death determined to uncover what really happened. I was honestly surprised by some of the negative reviews because I found this one entertaining. It you enjoy revenge driven psychological thrillers it’s worth a listen.

Bonus: Free, it’s included in the Audible Plus catalog.

[Coffee And Tales · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a very fast read but I wanted it to be twistier and darker when it came to the rich family secrets.

[Francesca; · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars 🌟
I liked the writing and the setting but found it pretty predictable. It kept me interested enough but overall it fell a little flat.🤷🏻‍♀️

[Christen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Exactly as everything seems.

[Rachel Burns · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️ This was a very great book for the imagination, in that I could picture everything. However, there were no twists, no turns and no pizzazz. it was just boring and highly predictable, and not in a good way

[Evelyn Wambui · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read a few books with this premise so nothing new for me.

Isla takes up a job at Maplehurst Manor as chef so she can figure out what happens to the previous chef, Clemmie, who killed herself 10 days after leaving the job. Isla hopes she can get justice for Clemmie who happens to be her twin sister.

She goes in, blends in and figures it out and in the end justice is served . Open and shut story with no major twists and turns. Felt bad that Alice died though - she was one of my fave characters in there…

Decent read

[Sylvia Lai · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book with a good hook, thrilling for the most part but draggy in some parts (perhaps it was just my impatience 😅). Storyline had mystery that kept me listening with attention, overall I enjoyed this audio book.

[Lindsay Nixon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started interesting but I lost interest by halfway so I skipped ahead to the last few chapters and was glad I didn’t continue knowing how it ends.

Included with audible

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this audible original was a letdown. Looking for an audiobook to kill time and just want to figure out why then this is the one, otherwise pass it by.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

• Audible

[Abi Ornadel · Rating 2 out of 5]

extremely predictable and too many untied loose ends and plot holes

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Christina Ashlock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a nice build up and then just unraveled too quickly.

[Maria Cross · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book but overall I probably wouldn't read it again. The ending in my opinion was unrealistic in a lot of ways. I also wouldn't truly classify this as a thriller while the aspect of finding out what happened to her sister kept me intrigued the overall conclusion of everything that kind of lost me (because it was unrealistic). I was also hoping for more food mentioning but there wasn't really any. I didn't feel connected with basically any of the characters if I'm being honest.

[Katie Froese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boring
Last 10 minutes is when it got interesting
Bleh

[Andrea Scaggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as twisty as I was hoping.

[Carolyn Goodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up to a 3!

[Shelley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing book compared to this authors usual standard. Ridiculous plot with too many holes to overlook. One dimensional evil protagonists, verses poor little heroine, amounts to shallow and boring reading. The end is predictable and ridiculous. Sweet little heroine gets away with murder and the police have suspicions but decide not do anything!

[Anthony Prebor · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Abishi · Rating 2 out of 5]

SPOILERS: ok wtf man in the prologue it talks about a woman and we all know the woman ends up being a girl named "zoe" the part that is a head scratcher the most is that although we know it is zoe in the prologue part of the prologue talks about how she grabbed a "half heart necklace" so that she could feel in a better place, once you listen to the story more you know that Zoe did not die but she ended up being paid off by James to stay silent. it's just that there's a plot hole in the whole half-hearted necklace because in the prologue it features Zoe talking about the necklace but in the epilogue isla puts two half-hearted necklaces (one necklace belonging to her sister supposedly) together when opening the shop in the end of the story so it begs the question why did we learn that Zoe had a half-hearted necklace in the prologue I guess the only right answer is that the author made a mistake because nobody died in the prologue isla's sister ended up committing suicide because of revealing photos that James took to blackmail her so we know she definitely was not in the prologue. that mistake just sticks with me because the prologue is where all the big questions start forming in your head it's a very big piece of the puzzle that was unfortunately done very terribly.

If someone believes I am mistaken please comment back because as far as I know I don't think this story was proof read by the author if you go to chapter 32 Sophie who was the girl who used to work at the house where James stayed was describing a scenario with a girl named Zoe which actually matches the prologue. Sophie says that Zoe was out of it that was in the prologue because in the prologue a woman talks about how something must have been in her drink, then Sophie talks about how she tells James she is not in the mood and that is also in the prologue because the woman in the prologue talks about how she's not in the mood and she wants to take things slow. And then Sophie talks about how she slips and falls and there is a lot of blood that is also in the prologue and then in the prologue it talks about how after the woman slipped and fell she says that she hears shouting. When we go back to chapter 32 Sophie talks about how after she saw Zoe fall she starts to tell James that they need to call the police so I'm guessing that part falls back into the prologue when the girl says that she hears people screaming(the screaming has to be Sophie telling James they need to call the police). Yeah but the story is pretty poor and why do isla and her twin sister have two different last names and it's not explained and then the ending was so mundane the ending did seem pretty rushed. I have to be honest you don't have to listen to this unless you really want to waste some time but you probably won't enjoy it. And one more thing, isla kills James by feeding him peanuts with chicken making him go into a type of shock and he ends up dying, now we get to the part where we talk about a rushed ending because she had to kiss James to put the peanut laced chicken into his mouth. It would be way too easy for forensics to find her DNA in his mouth at the time of her death........ Come on now the ending is very poor in this story....... Like I said you guys can skip this one.

[Nick Yau · Rating 1 out of 5]

Being a chef myself, the title immediately intrigued me. And to be fair, things started off pretty well. A revenge mystery thriller? Right up my street.

Unfortunately, the further I got into the book, the more everything started to fall apart.

First of all, forget about the chef. The most “chef” thing she does in the entire book is cook a chicken.

Then there’s the villain. The author practically points at him from the very beginning and says, “Yep, it’s him.” Fine. I don’t necessarily need to be deceived as a reader, but if you’re going to make the antagonist obvious, you’d better give me a reason to find him frightening. We’re constantly told, in effect, how clever, powerful and untouchable this man is, yet what we actually get is a sex pest and a bully. He’s neither intimidating nor powerful enough to explain why everyone around him is apparently terrified into silence. There’s no sense that this man has the influence or intelligence required to be as untouchable as the story wants us to believe.

And then the discrepancies in the narrative start piling up to the point of absurdity.

We have twins who apparently look so different that nobody can see the similarities. We have a “secret” that is supposedly shocking because of what you’ve told someone, despite the circumstances making very little sense. And then there’s the suicide, which carries virtually no emotional weight because, knowing what we know about the supposed reason behind it, the threat simply doesn’t seem remotely serious enough to justify such an extreme reaction.

But the ending is where I finally threw my hands up.

The protagonist is involved in a murder and somehow isn’t even properly questioned about it. The detectives apparently have no concerns whatsoever, and she just walks away completely unscathed without raising so much as an eyebrow.

How?

The plot holes in this book are bigger than the Kola Superdeep Borehole.

Everything feels rushed and barely thought through. It reads as though the author came up with the story as they went along, reached the end, realised there were massive holes everywhere, and simply couldn’t be arsed to go back and make any of it make sense.

And that’s what makes this particularly frustrating. I’ve genuinely enjoyed books by this author before. So I know they can do much better than this.

This one, however, feels like a first draft that somehow escaped onto the shelves. The premise had so much potential, but the execution is an absolute mess.

What an infuriating read.

[Texas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm pretty much a fan of K. L. Slater after having the pleasure of chainlistening to several audiobooks. I like the writing style of the author, her messed up story lines, her variety of characters, and her wait,-here's-another-wrinkle additions. Sometimes, I'm tickled at an occasional ending of a book. Source: My Audible library.

THE CHEF, Audiobook - Interesting story lines. Good characters. Bad behaviors. Source: Audible included. 4*

THE WAITRESS, Audiobook - Interesting. Intriguing. Immersing. Intense. Good characters. Good turn of events. Narrator Claudia Jessie does an excellent job with her characters and their emotions bringing life to the story. 4*

MY HUSBAND NEXT DOOR, Audiobook - An immersing book with an interesting variety of characters, intriguing story lines, and a gamut of emotions. The narrator Clare Corbett gives an excellent performance with her reading, her characters, and their emotions. 4*

THE GIRLFRIEND, Audiobook - Interesting. Good characters. The narrator Clare Corbett gives an excellent performance with her reading, her characters, and their emotions. 4*

HUSBAND AND WIFE, Audiobook - There several predictable items across the board, but still a good read. The narrator Clare Corbett gives an excellent performance with her reading, her characters, and their emotions. 3*

THE NARRATOR, Audiobook - Well, I thought it was predictable, not. The narrators Clare Corbett and Kristin Atherton give excellent performances with their readings, their characters, and their emotions. 4*

MISSING, Audiobook - Interesting. Intense. Good characters. The narrator Kristin Atherton gives an excellent performance with her reading, her characters, and their emotions. 5*

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

At Maplehurst Manor, revenge is a dish best served cold

Another binge-worthy triumph from the brilliant K.L. Slater and narrated to perfection by the talented Annabel Scholey and Laura Aikman, “The Chef” is a twisty thriller that serves up shock after delicious shock. I’m a longtime Slater fan with a vast collection of her audiobooks. The narration? Exquisite. Scholey and Aikman deliver every line with nuance, tension and a slow-burn suspense that had me hooked throughout. When private chef Isla Merrin takes a summer post at Maplehurst Manor, it’s not for the money or the prestige. She’s there because her twin sister, Clemmie, worked those same kitchens and weeks after walking out, she was dead. Maplehurst hides something rotten. Staff vanish overnight. Young women go silent. And the dinner parties? As Isla peels back layers of wealth, surveillance and privilege, she uncovers a pattern of abuse that’s older and deadlier than she imagined. Clemmie wasn’t the first. She won’t be the last. But in a house where the powerful are always one step ahead, exposing the truth could cost Isla everything. Some secrets are worth dying for. Others are worth killing to protect. A gripping psychological thriller about power, complicity and one woman’s relentless quest for justice is brought to vivid life by Scholey and Aikman. “The Chef” is Audible Plus gold. Thank you, Ms. Slater. Craving more. Highly recommended and worth a credit. Epic, indeed!

💥🎙️✍️🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟✍️🎙️💥

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers ahead.

I enjoyed The Chef, but there were too many things in the plot that didn’t quite ring true for me.

The biggest issue was Isla being revealed as Clemmie’s twin sister. I know not all twins are identical, but we’re repeatedly told that staff and owners thought Isla reminded them of someone. Surely someone, at some point, would have recognised the resemblance to Clemmie?

I also found Alice’s diary and the sudden realisation about Isla’s identity confusing and didn’t relate to anything at all. The sheer number of staff supposedly under this man’s control, along with terrified staff and deaths but nobody speaking out, also felt far-fetched. The idea that there was only one staff member the owners could actually trust to assist with Alice’s death stretched credibility even further.

The ending was fairly predictable, although I did enjoy Isla finally getting her revenge and using his food allergy against him. The police seemingly suspecting what had happened but choosing not press the matter also felt rather convenient.

Despite all that, I did enjoy the book and found it a better listen than many of the free Audible Plus offerings. Three stars feels fair — enjoyable, but with too many plot holes and implausible moments to rate it higher.

[Joannie Pigford · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating for this book is actually 3.4.
This story is about two twin sisters (Isla and Clemmie), whom were very close. The sisters loved cooking and plans to open a restaurant, but all those plans vanished when Clemmie return from a job at a secretive estate and committed suicide. Isla was so hurt that her twin took her life and she believe that something happened at that estate that caused her sister to take such a drastic measure.
Isla puts a plan in place to obtain a job at the same estate, Maplehurst Manor, as a chef to find out what happened to her sister there. Upon arriving to the estate things seemed very off. The estate is owned by the ultra wealth couple, the Cotswolds, whom are a peculiar couple with some dark secrets. The estate has a lot of surveillance, and strict rules.
Isla begins finding out about women whom had disappeared, or died under suspicious circumstances. As things begin to unravel the daughter of Mrs. Cotswold dies. An investigation ensues and tensions peak. When the truth is revealed it's worse than what Isla thought and she takes matters into her own hands. The ending was very satisfying.

[DeAnna Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise was promising but I couldn't really get into it for some reason. Felt like we were beating around the bush for too long but not in a very suspenseful way. As others mentioned- I know the author says they weren't identical twins but I would think a perp who has all this security and does his due diligence would have done a background check and probably put it together that this was her sister and then especially if they shared a resemblance you'd probably dig further... Also there was no detail given about the guy to really make you believe women would just do whatever he wanted. I feel like the author tried to make it Epstein-ish with the whole blackmail and vulnerable young women but it just didn't do any of that justice. It was included on Audible Plus so that makes up one star and the other star was actually the narrator whose voice I found soothing. 😂

[Brittany Darr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do enjoy K.L. Slater books, but they have proved to be pretty unremarkable. I've read maybe 5 or more now, and I can't recall the full plot in any of them. This too was interesting but kind of flat by the end of things. There were exciting bits and a-ha moments, but in a week or two I'll forget about this one too. Slater is good to keep your attention while you're in the books but probably won't be anyone's top favorite. Not quite filler books but close enough. Enjoyable but not stellar.

In this one we follow a twin who is trying to understand what happened to her twin while working at this expensive manor, what events caused her sister to commit suicide. This one seemed fairly straightforward on who was the bad guy, didn't give lots of twists and turns but just enough surprising moments to keep pulling you along.