Gourmet Detective

They call him the gourmet detective; the only thing sharper than his mind is his palate. When chefs need a rare ingredient, an ancient wine, or simply a new idea to gain that extra Michelin-star boost, they come to the detective's cozy London office and plead for his help. For top-notch cooking, he is always happy to lend his taste buds to the cause. Now Raymond Lefebvre, executive chef at one of London's finest French restaurants, has asked for the detective's help with a bit of kitchen espionage. Lefebvre's crosstown rival is winning international accolades cooking a dish called Oiseau Royal, and Lefebvre wants the recipe. Getting it takes the detective deep into the Circle of Careme, where the most elite chefs in Britain gather to swap recipes, techniques, and gossip. But when the chefs of Careme start to die, the detective starts to salivate. There is no finer appetizer than murder.

In the days of Marco Polo, men risked their lives for spices. And in an age when black pepper was so valuable that it was sold one peppercorn at a time, there was no spice more valuable than the legendary Ko Feng. Known as the Celestial Spice, it supposedly vanished five centuries ago, and its name lives on only as culinary myth. But now a sack of it has turned up in New York City, and the leading experts of world cuisine will kill for a taste. When London's finest gourmet detective proclaims the mysterious spice authentic, this sack of weeds becomes the most valuable substance on earth, worth thousands of dollars per gram. But soon the spice vanishes, one of his colleagues is murdered, and the detective is forced to dive into New York's culinary underworld. His palate may be refined, but this gourmet knows how to fight dirty.

The vineyards of the Willesford Wine Group occupy a particularly choice section of French wine country. From the grapes of Provence, the owners of this impeccably managed syndicate have squeezed international fame and fortune. Next to their spectacular estate lies the petite Peregrine Winery, whose shadowy owners suddenly make repeated requests to buy Willesford's property-raising their offer each time. Unable to discern Peregrine's motive for these persistent attempts, the Willesford group sends for London's gourmet detective, a sleuth with impeccable reasoning and an even finer palate. When he arrives in Provence, he doesn't even have time to sample the pâte before he finds a dead man leaning against a cart, dripping blood into the fine French terroir. For the winemakers of Provence, this will be an excellent year for murder.

London's gourmet detective is contemplating an empty bank account and, worse, an empty stomach, when a phone call solves both problems at once. Over lunch, Desmond Lansdown, world-renowned actor and burgeoning restaurateur, hires the detective for a chef-hunt, sending him to Italy to eat until he can decide which cook Lansdown should hire. It's a demanding gig, but this detective is never one to shy away from hard work. However, it doesn't take long for this plush assignment to turn prickly. In between meals, the detective gets a feeling that someone is out to get him. A murdered magnate, stampeding buffalo, and a killer monk are conspiring to ruin his digestion-a shame, because it is vital to eat well when each meal could be your last.

The gourmet detective realizes that the Alpine Springs health resort is not a typical spa somewhere in the middle of his first cocktail. Where other retreats promote abstinence, exercise, and bland food, this quiet little Swiss chalet preaches indulgence. Guests are allowed to eat, drink, and smoke as much as they want, and exercise is strictly optional. For this epicure, it is paradise-and it may also be his doom. He has come from London to speak about fine dining, but while here he fully intends on enjoying himself. One night he arranges a tryst with a fellow expert, a beautiful young woman named Kathleen Evans. They are deep in the woods, about to begin enjoying themselves, when something knocks the detective out cold. When he comes to, Kathleen has vanished, and the detective begins to suspect that life in the Alps is not as healthful as it appears.

When a jousting match at a medieval fair turns into old-fashioned murder, the Gourmet Detective sets out to unmask the killer. At Sir Gerald's medieval festival, the castle is authentic, the jousting is rousing, and the wenches are the sauciest in the land. The only thing missing is decent food. And so Sir Gerald calls in London's gourmet detective, an expert food finder, whose specialties include locating rare ingredients, designing historically accurate menus, and solving the occasional murder. And all three skills will be tested if he is to escape the age of chivalry alive. After the day's first joust, the winning knight falls to the ground, poisoned. Someone is trying to exterminate the gentry of this ersatz fiefdom, and it will take a sure palate and a strong stomach to find out who. To save his own head, the detective must contend with flooding dungeons, stray arrows, and a cast of dwarf knights-all while struggling to design a menu fit for a king.

For five generations, the Belvedere family restaurant has been a Louisiana landmark. Unfortunately, the Belvedere clan inherits more than a talent for cooking from each other-they also have an unfortunate tendency of becoming insane. When the latest Belvedere patriarch loses his mind, his son attempts to take over the business, only to find that the ancient family cookbook has vanished-and with it the priceless recipe for the world famous Oysters Belvedere. The Crescent City will never be the same. A bookseller claims to have found the family heirloom, and attempts to sell it at auction-a daring Creole gambit that draws the attention of London's famous gourmet detective. The sleuth visits the bookshop, but when he finds a corpse at the desk, he must lead a chase for the murderer and the stolen cookbook. One false step, and he'll end up like a crawfish at a boil: in mighty hot water.

Aboard a vintage luxury train on a voyage through Eastern Europe, the gourmet detective encounters a thoroughly modern murder. The Danube Express was once the most famous train on the continent. Linking east and west, it was the fastest route from the Alps to the Black Sea, until airplanes and automobiles made it obsolete. When a group of savvy investors revived it in the 1970s, it became an Express only in name. A five-star hotel on wheels, it is now a luxurious icon-and it's celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. Some of the most glamorous figures in the world have booked passage on this historic trip, and riding among them is London's gourmet detective, who has come to sample the Danube's famous cooking. But when a Hungarian actress disappears from the train, it turns out to be more than a publicity stunt. Soon it is clear that a killer lurks on the Danube Express, and plans on taking it all the way to the end of the line.