Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Love Diet: Cookbook author accused of Murder for Hire

Again my worlds of Crime and Chocolate cross. This one belongs in the Truth is Stranger than Fiction category.

Amy Reiley, co-author of The Love Diet with Juan-Carlos Cruz, will be flying solo tonight at a launch party tonight for the cookbook which debuts next week. The Love Diet is a twist on weight loss with recipes that aim for health, decadence and love. Of interest to me, of course, is the recipe for Chocolate Truffles made with fat free half and half instead of cream.

Reiley's co-author Juan-Carlos Cruz of Santa Monica, and a former Food Network TV chef, is in custody for 'allegedly" trying to hire homeless men to strangle his wife. Another twist since love and sex are an important part of this new cookbook is that Cruz and his wife have reportedly been having fertility problems. Cruz has pleaded not guilty. Bail is set at $5 million. This 'truth is stranger than fiction' story will bear watching.

As they say, publicity is where you find it, and The Love Diet is getting a lot of publicity. It's independently published by Amy Reiley's publishing company (they also published Kiss My Bundt). Read Amy Reiley's blog about the situation, HERE. Her website is The Life of Reiley.

Another way to market a book? :-)

Recipe for Chocolate Smothered Brie from the cookbook Fork Me, Spoon Me by Amy Reilly.

Recipes from the new cookbook soon... but on my Chocolate Blog: DyingforChocolate.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For the record, the Judge reduced the bail amount from $5 million to $2 million at the time Mr. Cruz was arraigned.

Janet Rudolph said...

Thanks, and I'm sure there are many more facts on this.