Customer Reviews

Holy Guacamole!

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a light and fun book. One of the references used is from a book written by one of my family members. El Paso is a little known city in Texas. It is actually the 19th largest city in the nation, and the largest on any part of the U.S border. This book gives us a glimpse El Paso's culture, climate and ambiance. The recipies included are from some of the finest restaurants, serving the best Mexican Food this side of the border. There's lots to learn and new food to try.

This is an unassuming, yet amusing mystery. Its protagonist is a woman with an admirable propensity for taking up arms against a sea of troubles while tossing off historical tidbits and Texas-oriented recipes along the way. I have no qualms about recommending this book to anyone with a taste for contemporary foodie whodunits. Part of the book, however, deals with a local university's production of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, "Macbeth," and I have a mind to offer a comment or two on that.

The producer-director of the opera, we are told by the heroine-narrator, has taken diabolical liberties with the piece, liberties enough to rile her and everybody else in the audience into a state of sputtering indignation. These liberties are even offered later in the book, albeit half-heartedly, as sufficient reason why the aforementioned producer-director so soon takes on the new role of First Murder Victim.

As far as I can see, just three specific liberties are set out for the operatic "Macbeth." First, the setting is changed from 11th Century Scotland to contemporary El Paso. Second, the protagonists are no longer nobles embroiled in a civil war over Scotland but gangs embroiled in a civil war over turf. Third, the witches, whom Verdi had made into a chorus of women, have been converted into a trio of individual singers. (This third change is regarded by the narrator as a GOOD THING.)

Speaking as an opera fan, one who has been assailed by productions of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" set in a Brooklyn diner, Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera" placed in a latrine, Rossini's "Barber of Seville" transported to Baghdad, and Wagner's "Ring" plunked down in heaven knows what twisted and incoherent universe, these "Macbeth" liberties seem awfully mild.

That everyone in the theater would find them appalling is a concept that strikes me as hilariously unlikely. It must be remembered that a substantial portion of any paying audience at an opera house regards all music drama as merely an interval between periods of serious drinking. That portion neither knows nor cares. Then, there is the segment of the audience that takes any new twist, no matter how bizarre, no matter how irrational, no matter how inappropriate, as a stroke of genius, and they will loudly trumpet their own open-minded appreciation for it. Another portion just comes to hear the diva sing; they couldn't care less about her surroundings. Some come just for the music and regard all physical stage production as intrinsically flawed. And the rest of us just look, groan and mumble that it might have been worse. In fifty years of opera attendance, I recall only five performances that I found faultless--and three of those were in the 1960s.


As for the liberties taken with the opera in the book, a struggle between thuggish nobles is not so different from battling gang lords; a turf war is a turf war. Between Scotland and El Paso--well, blasted heaths are not exactly unknown in either place. And as for the weird sisters, whether chorus or trio, they are still le sorelle vagabonde who on un giorno non vidi mai so foul and fair greet Macbeth to hail him di Glamis sire, di Caudor sire, and king that shall be.

After traveling through several American states and quite a few foreign nations solving homicides along the way, Caroline finds a murder investigation in her own back yard in El Paso. They are attending the opera seeing a contemporary version of a Macbeth dealing in modern day illegal drug trafficking. Many are appalled at the changes artistic director Vladislav Gubenko made to the Bard's classic.

After eating tostados with guacamole, Vladislav leaves for home ignoring his irate critics. The next day his next door neighbor and former vice cop Luz finds Vladislav dead. The police think he choked to death in his vomit, but Luz believes otherwise; she feels a killer used a pillow to smother him. Luz and Carolyn try to learn who the killer is and why he murdered him. In the course of their investigation, they kidnap a Juarez based drug dealer and take him to the States for the bounty, rescue students from white slavery, and get men abusing their authorities by illegally jailing women for personal use. However, the Gubenko killer remains at the top of the list.

Many Americans and Mexicans see El Paso as a border town, but to Carolyn it is a cosmopolitan center with many of the good points that large cities contain with the additional influence of the borderland culture. Luz and Carolyn make a great crime fighting team who hopefully will continue to clean the streets from those felonious varmints. Nancy Fairbanks has written a serio-comic who-done-it in which Carolyn's trivial historical sputtering adds humor to the witty and exciting pursuit of a killer.

Harriet Klausner

This is only the second book I have read of Nancy Fairbanks. It is fast paced and educational and I love the way she lets the other character,Luz, give her opinons on the side....so to speak. Two complaints I had is that (one) Carolyn is suppose to have lived in El Paso for sometime now....BUT she seems to know very little, if any, Spanish words. She can recite a millions facts, but how about a couple Spanish words? Having Carolyn ask Luz all the time what a word in Spanish meant was a little annoying. Also (two)...the author seems to want to split her personality. One is with all the sweetness and naivete of June Cleaver and the other is akin to Stephanie Plum. I'm a little confused as who the real Carolyn Blue is? The recipes throughout the book help soothe a lot of ills so I may read another copy.

Fun, silly and sounds like someone I know. Found myself laughing out loud. A perfect beach book. Also, some great recipes to try out. Enjoy

This was a light, pool-side read, but even at that, it's not good. Carolyn Blue is a confusing character, not complex, just confusing. She claims to be in her early 40's but her language and behavior makes her seem more a contemporary of Miss Marple. Maybe the author was trying to show a dichotomy between her prissiness and her adventerous side in solving crime? No, I think that's giving the author too much credit. Also, Carolyn is supposed to be a food editor, but she wasn't familiar with some common ingredients.

If I wanted to read a history book, I'd choose one. The history lessons about El Paso and Mexico got in the way of the story. Maybe just a way to fill out a book that would have been more of a short story without the historical data?

Finally, the solution of the mystery was a letdown.

It try to keep my review short.

The crime story is average, the recipes started my mouth to water but the main plot it simply hilarious. The two main protagonists, Carolyn Blue, wife of a university professor and author of a food column and Luz Vallejo, retired cop, who couldn't be more different.

The story is told alternatively by Carolyn and Luz and as funny as can be.

I ordered the remaining books written by Nancy immediately.

Carolyn Blue is a culinary writer residing in Texas. At an opera production "after party" the artistic director eats too much guacamole and hours later he is dead. Carolyn doesn't believe it was food poisoning and does a little investigating herself. She teams up with ex-cop Luz Vallejo and they make a hilarious team trying to solve the case. This delightful novel includes scary Russian and Mexican mobsters, exotic dancers, opera, and enticing recipes.
This is book six in the series

Forty-something homemaker Carolyn Blue is through with cooking and cleaning. She's finally decided to throw in the dishtowel - and take on a dream job as food writer. Now her plate is filled with exotic locales, delectable foods, and even a dash of crime, to taste. She could very well get used to this........

Carolyn Blue spices things up at a post-production opera party in ElPaso, Texas - where the company's notorious artistic director, Vladislav Gubenko, eats some bad guacamole that disagrees with him right to the death. A scorned soprano admits to maliciously mixing the dish to get back at Vlad for passing her over for her dream role. But Carolyn learns that foul play, not foul food, was the real culprit - and uncovers some unsavory secrets about Gubenko that lead to a full menu of suspects. Now, the heat is on as Carolyn tries to drop the curtain on a friend with a taste for murder.................

Holy Guacamole is the best Carolyn Blue mystery so far! Lots of fun and lots of food.