Life will never be the same for Mr Jones.

Jonathon Jones unknowingly partners with his mysterious email informant, Ms. Smith, whose uncanny scoops and insider gossip fuel his success. When his fascination with her begins to erode his professional and romantic life, Jones’s quest to unmask his source leads to the shocking discovery that “Ms. Smith” is actually his quiet photographer, Melanie Barnes, a gifted but underestimated woman hiding behind her camera—and her deaf sister’s lip-reading skills. As a spiral of journalistic ethics, personal deception, and murder unfolds, Jones and Melanie must navigate betrayal and ambition amid New York’s glittering yet ruthless media landscape. 

SYNOPSIS:

Wealthy celebrity chef, author, restaurant reviewer and celebrity news journalist, Jonathan Jones (Jones to his friends), writes a celebrity and restaurant column called Before & After for the newspaper, New York Today. With his personal assistant and photographer, Melanie Barnes, Jones cruises the heady world of celebrity parties, Broadway openings, red carpet events and the finest restaurants and kitchens of New York City. One of the things that makes his column unique is that Melanie photographs each meal "Before and After". Usually tucked away somewhere in the kitchen, she photographs an identical copy of the meal that the chef delivers to the table for Jones to review. Then at the end of the meal, she shoots whatever is left on Jones’ plate. The residue of what’s left on the plate tells a good part of the review story. Jones grew up in a poor middle class neighborhood. He is a firm believer in the clean plate club as a baseline measure of fine dining and a true compliment to the chef’s skills in the kitchen. Consequently, he always comes with a hearty appetite with the hopes of a clean plate at the end the meal. But since that is just one measure of a successful restaurant, Jones rewards the chef with up to “Four Bones” to gauge the quality of the meal, the design and atmosphere of the restaurant and the social ambiance created by the diners. He gathers quite a bit of his gossip from the restaurant patrons. And, he is assisted by the anonymous Ms Smith that feeds him juicy bits of gossip from the restaurants he reviews. He doesn't know how Ms Smith knows which restaurant he's going to review, but she, whoever she is, always comes through a juicy bit for his column. This is their story.