Customer Reviews

Dine and Die on the Danube Express (Thorndike Press Large Print Mystery Series)

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The allure of this book is the allure of train travel in a bygone era: clickety-clacking through the world in encapsulated luxury. I enjoyed vicariously watching the sights and cities of Europe pass by my window while being wined and dined and not gaining an ounce. A few things, however, I found hard to swallow: the kitchen's ability and willingness to offer passengers a wide choice of dishes for each meal, for one; and the train's alleged high-tech features that did away with any track noise or sense of movement whatsoever. Also the size and appointments of the cabins. These details were tip-offs that the Danube Express was purely a fictional train. I also wasn't convinced by the narrator being asked to participate in the investigation on the basis of having once "worked with Scotland Yard."

But Peter King gets points for making what appear to be red herrings actually keys to the mystery's solution. And he has a real cliffhanger of a climax. Still, the rewards of this book are like the rewards of luxury train travel itself: It's the trip, not the destination.

The Gourmet Detective expects a luxurious trip including a gourmet meal as he rides the Danube Express on its twentieth fifth anniversary tour of Eastern Europe. He just sits down at the table ready to feast on the seven-course first evening dinner when security supervisor Karl Kramer asks for his help.

The Budapest Times reports that renowned passenger Hungarian stage star Magda Malescu is dead in her compartment. There is no body yet Magda is missing and the compartment smells of bitter almonds. The Gourmet Detective wonders how the reporter learned about the alleged death almost in a quantum physics way before the event occurred. Not even fully certain that the victim is dead The Gourmet Detective soon uncovers a wealth of suspects until the corpse reappears breathing quite nicely. However, murder occurs as someone kills Magda's understudy and a journalist. Karl and the Gourmet Detective wonder if the vanishing act and homicides are a diversion from an attempt to steal a valuable Mozart manuscript or improved grapevines found in baggage.

This novel needs to carry a warning label for anyone who is on the slightest health regimen as this tale abounds with good food and drink to the delight of the gourmand reader. Though fun, the mystery seems like eating rabbit diet food compared with the menu of dining palette that obviously clogs the blood system of the Gourmet Detective and the reader.

Harriet Klausner

I love these books, and wonder where this author has gone. No new one coming out?
This mystery takes place on a train and describes food a bit less than Mr King's previous books. I prefer the more descriptive books, but this was good as well. A quick, easy read that brings you into and absorbs you in the locale. And makes you mouth water to boot.
I hope Mr. King writes another soon.

Every Peter King book is a delight. However since I'm somewhat familiar with the geography of Austria, Germany and Hungary, I resented the liberties the author has taken in describing the route of the 'Danube Express'. (Time and time again, locales were transposed and places attributed to the wrong countries)
The description of the meals is, as always in a Peter King book, superb and the plot and atmosphere are interesting.