Less wacky than most Gourmet Detective outings, but readers will find the menu descriptions mouthwatering and crave a sample...
When the coveted cookbook containing five generations of Belvedere family recipes, including the restaurateurs’ heralded Oysters Belvedere, comes up for auction, the Gourmet Detective (Eat, Drink, and Be Buried, 2001, etc.) is invited to the Big Easy to authenticate it by a lawyer representing a client he declines to name. There are two immediate problems: The book has disappeared, and five gorgeous women waylay the G.D. and explain that they are “Witches”—that is, Women in the Catering, Hotel, and Eating Services—and they want the G.D. to get that book for them, too. The trail leads to Michael Gambrinus, Bookseller, where someone sits dead in the owner’s chair. After a refreshing stop for a beignet and chicory-laced coffee, the G.D. is on the trail again, pausing only for a hefty portion of catfish fillets, then another stop for gumbo sopped up with pain perdu and yet another for high-caloric flummery for dessert. Between bites, the G.D. visits a book forger, learns Cajun and Creole dining idiosyncrasies, confers with a New Orleans cop, rides the St. Charles streetcar line from end to end, and discovers which Witch is two-timing the others, for a wrap-up that demands a celebratory Ramos gin fizz.
Less wacky than most Gourmet Detective outings, but readers will find the menu descriptions mouthwatering and crave a sample of shrimp remoulade.Pub Date: June 17, 2002
ISBN: 0-312-28365-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fluke’s latest puzzler boasts 25 recipes and even more surprises.
A cruise may be romantic for Lake Eden’s Lutheran minister and his wife, but it’s murder for Hannah Swensen (Gingerbread Cookie Murder, 2010, etc.) and her pals.
Now that his childhood friend Matthew Walters has taken over his pastoral duties for two weeks, Rev. Bob Knudson can finally take his bride Claire on a belated honeymoon. Grandma Knudson’s willing to look after Matthew, just as she did when he and his cousin Paul stayed in Lake Eden as a teenager. And she’s even willing to keep an eye on Pete Nunke’s mynah, who’s staying in the rectory while Pete recovers from back surgery. Of course Hannah keeps Grandma Knudson well stocked with Butterscotch Bonanza Bars and Nutmeg Snaps from The Cookie Jar, her coffee shop. But when one of Hannah’s visits ends with the discovery of Matthew’s body face down in a piece of Red Devil’s Food Cake (recipe included), she leaves Grandma Knudson in the care of Clara and Marguerite Hollenbeck to stalk a killer. Hannah’s partner Lisa Beeseman entertains customers with tales of the grisly find while Hannah enlists sisters Andrea and Michelle to question potential suspects. They even stop at the skuzzy Eagle roadhouse to question Lenny Peske about the dollar coin he gave Lisa as a tip. Hannah’s main partner-in-crime-prevention, Norman Rhodes, on the other hand, has seemed strangely preoccupied ever since his ex-fiancée, Beverly Thorndike, joined his dental practice. Will Claire and Bob’s idyllic adventure spell romantic disaster for Lake Eden’s premier sleuth?
Fluke’s latest puzzler boasts 25 recipes and even more surprises.Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7582-3491-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Don’t be fooled by the brand-new packaging. If you liked Rosenfelt’s rollicking previous series, you’ll like this one too.
The creator of Paterson attorney Andy Carpenter’s dog-friendly mysteries launches a new series starring several of Andy’s friends and enemies, including the canine client he represented in Dachshund Through the Snow (2019), with a supporting role for Andy himself.
Judge Henry “Hatchet” Henderson, whose courtroom has provided the arena for so many of Andy’s shenanigans, is threatened with blackmail, and he wants the newly formed K Team—retired cop Corey Douglas; his canine partner, Simon Garfunkel; Andy’s fearsome investigator, Marcus Clark; and Andy’s wife, Laurie Collins—to identify and neutralize the threat, which he plans to keep confidential by paying Andy a dollar to take the case as his lawyer. At first the team’s inquiries into which of Henderson’s recent cases (the manslaughter conviction of ex-boxer John Lowry? The freeing of self-confessed embezzler Nina Williams on a legal technicality? The acquittal of Ponzi-scheming broker Drew Lockman?) provoked the blackmail lead nowhere. Then they lead to hints of a financial manipulation conspiracy on a grand scale. By the time they lead to Equi-net, an electronic communications network that handles securities trades for people who’d like to keep them private, five people have been murdered, with more slated to follow. The one place they don’t lead is to continued confidentiality, as Henderson learns to his sorrow. The net of deceptions, double-crosses, and professional assassinations gets pretty knotty, but although the conspiracy involves an awful lot of guilty parties, the gimmick behind all their criminal activity is appealingly simple. Through it all, Corey serves as an investigator and narrator every bit as ebullient as Andy and a lot more diligent. In fact, longtime fans may wonder why Rosenfelt saw the need to create a new series that follows the pattern of Andy’s 20 successful cases so closely. If he thought Paterson needed more wiseacre crime fighters, he was undoubtedly right.
Don’t be fooled by the brand-new packaging. If you liked Rosenfelt’s rollicking previous series, you’ll like this one too.Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-25719-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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