The final four mysteries from a Cordon Bleu chef, featuring an “appealing detective [who] serves up nuggets of culinary trivia and wry foodie humor” (People).
They call him the gourmet detective. From his home in London to the culinary capitals of Europe and beyond, he is known for his sharp mind and even sharper palate. When chefs need a rare ingredient or a new idea to gain that extra Michelin-star boost, they come to him. And when cases turn deadly, he has a most exquisite way of catching killers. “The Gourmet Detective is . . . a delight. [The series] provides terrific writing, characters that come to life on the page, and wonderful information on gourmet cooking and the food industry” (Stuart M. Kaminsky, Edgar Award–winning author).
A Healthy Place to Die: While relaxing at the Swiss Alpine Springs spa, the gourmet detective gets knocked out cold and loses his date. As he searches for the vanished woman, he soon discovers this is one resort that is not good for his health.
Eat, Drink and Be Buried: At a medieval fair, the gourmet detective is hired to oversee a historically accurate menu for the banquets. But when a knight falls to the ground after a joust, poisoned, the famous food-finder must find a killer—and prove chivalry is not dead.
Roux the Day: When a Big Easy bookseller who claimed to have the priceless missing cookbook of the legendary Louisiana Belvedere family restaurant turns up dead, the gourmet detective leads the chase through New Orleans for the stolen recipes and a killer thief.
Dine and Die on the Danube Express: Some of the most glamorous figures in the world have booked passage on the twenty-fifth anniversary trip of the transcontinental Danube Express, and riding among them is the gourmet detective. But when a Hungarian actress disappears, it’s the beginning of a first-class mystery.
Peter King (b. 1922) is an English author of mystery fiction, a Cordon Bleu–trained chef, and a retired metallurgist. He has operated a tungsten mine, overseen the establishment of South America’s first steel processing plant, and prospected for minerals around the globe. His work carried him from continent to continent before he finally settled in Florida, where he led the design team for the rocket engines that carried the Apollo astronauts to the moon. In his spare time, King wrote one-act plays and short mystery stories. When he retired, in 1991, he wrote his first novel, The Gourmet Detective, a cozy mystery about a chef turned sleuth who solves mysteries in the kitchen. King followed it with seven more books starring the character, including Dying on the Vine (1998) and Roux the Day (2002). In 2001 he published Jewel of the North, the first of three historical mysteries starring Jack London. King lives in Sarasota, Florida.