At the beginning of each month, I get to pick a book through the Amazon First Reads program. They have different genres available and I usually lean towards the historical fiction. But this month, I picked The Hike by Susi Holliday, a thriller set in the Swiss Alps. The premise sounded intriguing: Four friends go for a hike and only two return. What happened?! from amazon.com Let me preface this post by saying that the book was awful. Sorry to say that, but it was. None of the characters were likeable much less believable. And the ending was truly laughable. The only redeeming quality was it was a mercifully quick read. Also there wasn't a lot of food mentioned, but one mere mention of a dish sent me running to the kitchen. I'll get to that in a second. A couple of other food passages... "Ginny had done all the shopping, except she’d ordered a load of ridiculous ingredients – truffle butter, some exotic vegetables that no one knew how to cook. And far too much booze. Th...