KNIFE SKILLS

A Chicago chef with a troubled past must cope with an even more troubled present.

Louie Ferrar may have hired Sagarine Pfister when nobody else would give her a second look, but now that he’s been stabbed to death and frozen solid inside his freezer, Sags is on her own. She reacts by instructing the few staffers at Louie’s who know what’s happened not to report it till they’ve completed their dinner service for the guests of Anatoly Morzov, the majority owner of the restaurant. Det. Carter isn’t crazy about the nine-hour delay before he was notified, but the dinner otherwise goes off so well that Anatoly demands that Sags cater a party at his house. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Jebediah Smith demands that she accept the job, allow the feds to install hidden microphones around the restaurant, and report back to him on Anatoly and his mobbed-up friends—unless she wants Smith to come down hard on her sister, Gigi, whose own past includes drugs, prostitution, and a nasty childhood secret. An already complicated situation, which includes Sags’ stalking by an all-seeing correspondent who acts both smitten and possessive, gets even dicier when impossibly beautiful Ekaterina Belyaev, the sister of Anatoly’s lieutenant Valentin Belyaev, makes a play for Sags, who’s more than ready to respond in kind. Church tosses in loving descriptions of world-class cuisine, detailed accounts of how to weaponize kitchen appliances against attacking gangsters, and a climax that will leave you gasping. Audiences who wish the TV series The Bear could make room for Russian mobsters are in for a treat.

A kickoff to a possible series whose later installments will be hard-pressed to live up to its dizzying standards.