The Gourmet Detective - Hardcover

David Baker attributes his fascination with wine to a chance train stop in Beaune which led to time spent working in commercial vineyards, a film, a novel and a dozen years making passable pinot noir in his garage. He holds an MFA from Columbia College Chicago and is the director of American Wine Story. He currently lives in Oregon's Willamette Valley with his wife and daughter.

The unnamed Gourmet Detective is an ex-chef, whodunit buff, and hopeful hero and narrator of a projected series. He makes a living consulting on hard-to-create menus and hard-to-trace ingredients--until drawn into a more practical challenge by a London restaurateur who feels that his operation is being sabotaged. When a hated investigative reporter is murdered at the prestigious Circle of Cƒreme dinner--Tartelettes ... la Dijonnaise, Brouillade d'Oeufs MystŠre, and, for the poison course, eels marinated in Tintulinum botulinum--the Gourmet Detective is fired by his client but tapped for assistance by Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard's ``Food Squad.'' Sleuthing follows in a frenetic but somewhat flavorless round of cocktail-hour flirtation, back-alley spying, and brain-picking under false pretenses. It concludes with a second Circle of Cƒreme dinner featuring Asparagus Vinaigrette Mimosa, Nougatine Glac‚e au Caf‚, and a denouement revealing the murderer--a surprise only because, given the author's demi-glac‚- thin characterization, we may have forgotten meeting him/her before. Cordon Bleu chef/first-novelist King crams his pages with food and fictional allusions, writing like a dedicated hobbyist who, unfortunately, can't be bothered with style. A derivative series idea that falls flat. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.