The Gourmet Detective (Culinary Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Peter King (Author)

Book Description

Series: Culinary Mysteries | Publication Date: August 15, 1997

Meet the Gourmet Detective. A chef-turned-culinary sleuth, the Gourmet Detective tracks down obscure ingredients and unravels difficult recipes for rival restaurateurs -- until a guest unexpectedly drops dead at the prestigious Circle of Careme dinner. Drawing upon his epicurean and investigative skills, the Gourmet Detective hunts the killer among omelettes Bourguignonne and vats of Madeira sauce. Featuring many real recipes and actual cooking techniques, this delightful mystery is a charming romp through the kitchens of the finest gourmands.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This appealign detective serves up nuggets of culinary trivia and wry foode humor." -People

"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." -Publisher's Weekly

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (August 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312962606
• ISBN-13: 978-0312962609
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,385,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable, unique and novel theme, well researched, September 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gourmet Detective (Culinary Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed this mystery. My usual technique is to devour mysteries, quickly trying to figure out the whodonit. This book forced me to detour into The Joy of Cooking, Simca's Cuisine, and even the Dictionary. I love books that make me look up works like sabayon, cêpes, and the more than one meaning of flan. I thought I knew a bit about cooking, but was quickly humbled by the author's extensive knowledge. As a lover of light but witty fiction (it sure beats the sitcoms) and cooking (I loved reading about his detailed preparation techniques of even the simplest of meals!), I will definitely move on to the next title in this series.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A few ingredients short, July 17, 2002

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gourmet Detective (Culinary Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Following the lead of my old economics professor William Breit -- who, as one half of the pseudonymous writing team Marshall Jevons gave us a murder-solving economist in 'The Fatal Equilibrium' and other titles -- more and more writers have served up murder mysteries in which someone uses the particular skills of his line of work to unravel a whodunit and bring the killers to justice. Peter King makes a noble attempt in this first entry in his by-now-long-running series. But while parts of the story were quite good, as a murder mystery, it was ultimately unsatisfying.

Like the Continental Op, our hero is unnamed. But he (like his creator, clearly) is a fan of detective fiction. Much of the book has an oddly self-aware quality, therefore -- especially when the hero and his Scotland Yard counterpart compare their interactions to those of famous fictional detectives and policemen. It's amusing at first to see the detective asking himself how Peter Wimsey or Charlie Chan would handle a certain situation, but even that begins to grow old after a while. Similarly, though it's refreshing that the author rejects the convention of the omnicompetent and almost omniscient sleuth -- the hero frequently complains that Holmes would have done a better job understanding a clue, or Travis McGee a difficult situation -- the solution to the crime, when it comes, struck me as in many ways unrelated to what our hero had been doing for the last 200 pages. Had I been following the wrong character around London?

Still, this is a fascinating concept, and not too bad for a first book. Certainly, the author knows his food (or at least, can snow an amateur foodie like me). I'm going to give some of the later titles in the series a try, and see if maybe things don't improve a bit over time.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Refreshingly different, February 21, 2006

By 

Anna Bell Lee - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gourmet Detective (Culinary Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

When I first picked up this book, i was looking for a mystery to read for a class. This book made my assignment a bit more difficult because it is not exactly the step by step detective story that we are used to. The Gourmet Detective is actually in a catagory all its own. Not only does the reader drool from all the exotic and interesting foods the detective encounters, but the reader is forced to use a dictionary. Unless you are a chef specializing in food like that in the book, a dictionary is required. If you are looking for the average detective story, dont look here, if your palet is open to new tastes and you are willing to try something different for dinner, by all means open this book and enjoy.