- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Thorndike Press; Lrg edition (Feb 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0786247819
- ISBN-13: 978-0786247813
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 14.1 x 3 cm
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He traces the bookseller back to his store only to find the man shot dead and the book is missing. He is asked to continue looking for the book by his original client and a group of female chefs who promise to pay him as well as feed him. That is an offer he can't resist but in between five meals he finds another corpse, this one a man who tried to sell him a counterfeit edition of the book. The Gourmet Detective doesn't know why there is so much interest in a cookbook but he intends to find out because his reputation is on the line.
ROUX THE DAY is a delightful mystery that doesn't take itself too seriously. The Gourmet Detective is a likable hero whose fascination with food is a sensual experience, one that the readers can experience by reading the mouth-watering descriptions of his meals. Peter Kings latest installment in his long-running series is a treat that readers will devour.
Harriet Klausner
In this one, our nameless hero is in New Orleans on what should be a relatively straightforward affair: to verify whether an historic restaurant's chef's book (as distinct from a cookbook) being offered up for auction is the real deal. But someone else purchases the book before he can even see it, and the chase is on. This leads quickly to murder, and then to another murder, as well as to many, many lovingly described New Orleans meals and lots of coffee with chicory.
Many of the faults and idiosyncrasies I noted in 'The Gourmet Detective' have been weeded out of this title. Our hero is no longer comparing himself to every fictional detective ever published -- he has much more self-confidence now -- nor is he making us sit through long, descriptive passages detailing his every lunch and dinner (this doesn't contradict what I said in the last paragraph: here, the meals described have relevance to the story; before they felt more like space-filler intended to establish the hero's credentials as a gourmet). Most importantly, it's the detective's own skills that solve the mystery -- just what we'd expect in a mystery novel.
This isn't to say the story is perfect. There are still a few dots I'm not certain how he connected, even though I read the relevant passages several times over. On the whole, I still prefer Rick Riordan's atmospheric Tres Navarre series, set in San Antonio (one of the few American cities as interesting as New Orleans). But this one is growing on me, and I'm fairly certain I'll be looking up the other books in the Gourmet Detective series.
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