Roux the Day

by Peter King

Book Overview

For six generations, the Belvedere family dominated the culinary landscape of New Orleans, a city that boasts what is perhaps the most vibrant, exciting, and authentic cuisine in America.But each generation relinquished control of the family restaurant-best known for its world famous Oysters Belvedere-only after succumbing to the madness that has plagued the dynasty since its arrival from the Canary Islands.Now, after the business' doors have remained...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312283652
• ISBN13: 9780312283650
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 231 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Food Entertainment

I am a fan of the Gourmet Detective series. I love the descriptions of food and the different locales and predicaments that the Gourmet Detective somehow stumbles onto. Sure, this isn't a perfectly written mystery but its entertaining and delightful for food lovers all over! Having been to New Orleans, reading this book made me consider all the restaurants I didn't get to try on my last visit! Read this for the enjoyment of food entertainment!

A much better mix this time

As soon as I finished reading the very first Gourmet Detective novel (published in 1994 but read last week), I leapt right into 'Roux the Day,' the latest in the series. This latest is dramatically better than the first, and so I am interested now in reading the rest of the titles in the series to see how the improvement progressed.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.

delightful mystery

Homicide is the furthest thing from the Gourmet Detective's mind when he is invited to New Orleans to authenticate a cook book that is going up for auction. When he arrives at the place where the book is supposed to be, he discovers that a bookseller bought it before auction even started. 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