Gourmet Detective

Title:

Gourmet Detective

Author:

King, Peter

Subject:

Mystery

Fiction

Description:

From sourcing rare ingredients to solving crimes, “this appealing detective serves up nuggets of culinary trivia and wry food humor” (People). They call him the gourmet detective; the only thing sharper than his mind is his palate. When chefs need a rare ingredient, an ancient wine, or simply a new idea to gain that extra Michelin-star boost, they come to the detective’s cozy London office and plead for his help. For top-notch cooking, he is always happy to lend his taste buds to the cause. Now Raymond Lefebvre, executive chef at one of London’s finest French restaurants, has asked for the detective’s help with a bit of kitchen espionage. Lefebvre’s crosstown rival is winning international accolades cooking a dish called Oiseau Royal, and Lefebvre wants the recipe. Getting it takes the detective deep into the Circle of Careme, where the most elite chefs in Britain gather to swap recipes, techniques, and gossip. But when the chefs of Careme start to die, the detective starts to salivate. There is no finer appetizer than murder.

Publisher:

MysteriousPress.com/Open Road

Date:

2012/09/25

Digital Format:

HTML

ADOBE EPUB

KINDLE

Language:

English

Summary

From sourcing rare ingredients to solving crimes, "this appealing detective serves up nuggets of culinary trivia and wry food humor" ( People ).
They call him the gourmet detective; the only thing sharper than his mind is his palate. When chefs need a rare ingredient, an ancient wine, or simply a new idea to gain that extra Michelin-star boost, they come to the detective's cozy London office and plead for his help. For top-notch cooking, he is always happy to lend his taste buds to the cause. Now Raymond Lefebvre, executive chef at one of London's finest French restaurants, has asked for the detective's help with a bit of kitchen espionage. Lefebvre's crosstown rival is winning international accolades cooking a dish called Oiseau Royal, and Lefebvre wants the recipe. Getting it takes the detective deep into the Circle of Careme, where the most elite chefs in Britain gather to swap recipes, techniques, and gossip. But when the chefs of Careme start to die, the detective starts to salivate. There is no finer appetizer than murder.

Author Notes

Peter King (b. 1922) is an English author of mystery fiction, a Cordon Bleu-trained chef, and a retired metallurgist. He has operated a tungsten mine, overseen the establishment of South America's first steel processing plant, and prospected for minerals around the globe. His work carried him from continent to continent before he finally settled in Florida, where he led the design team for the rocket engines that carried the Apollo astronauts to the moon. In his spare time, King wrote one-act plays and short mystery stories. When he retired, in 1991, he wrote his first novel, The Gourmet Detective , a cozy mystery about a chef turned sleuth who solves mysteries in the kitchen. King followed it with seven more books starring the character, including Dying on the Vine (1998) and Roux the Day (2002). In 2001 he published Jewel of the North , the first of three historical mysteries starring Jack London. King lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This series debut by a Cordon Bleu chef leads readers on a cook's tour of haute cuisine, replete with tantalizing descriptions of food and its preparation, robust wit and an appropriately culinary murder. London's "Gourmet Detective," whose business is "locating rare and exotic foods, advising on substitutes for scarce products, finding alternate sources of ingredients," is hired by Francois Duquesne to find out who is sabotaging his famous restaurant by confiscating shipments of food and planting mice in the larder. The unnamed detective, who narrates the tale, is in attendance at the prestigious Circle of Careme banquet at Francois's restaurant when an influential TV journalist is poisoned. Asked to assist in the investigation by Scotland Yard's Food Squad inspector, the Gourmet Detective traces the media-steeped case to its conclusion. King serves up an entertaining puzzle as his hearty main course, rounding out the offering with food facts, references to mystery literature and exotic ingredients (among them ortolans and turbot) and snappy one-liners. The hero declares at the end that he's had enough of murder and will stick "with mangoes and marjoram from now on." Readers will hope he doesn't mean it. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved